The Devil and The Reaper
by Alpha Espada
Summary: After 2 years have passed since Aizen's defeat and his powers vanished, Ichigo thought that his life would go back to being normal but one day he encounters a certain red-head girl coming to his school and she's not alone. (It is rated T for now please R&R)
1. Just Another Normal Day or Not

**(A/N: Please read and review)**

It was Monday morning and his alarm begins to sound off only to be punched off by a sleeping Ichigo wanting a few more minutes of sleep. A few minutes passed and the alarm went off again and, like before, Ichigo slams his fist on the alarm shutting it off and finally decides to get up. The former substitute soul reaper groggily got himself out of his bed and sees that it was 7:09am.

"Yup, time to get up." It was almost two years since Aizen's defeat and Ichigo's powers have since vanished after using Mugetsu. Ever since then he couldn't see spirits, hollows or soul reapers for that matter; but today is another day on his final year of high school.

At first, after the winter wars, Ichigo had to play a lot of catch up with his school work since he was gone for most of that school year. At first, Hat and Clogs wanted to make it up to him by pulling a few strings here and there but Ichigo wasn't one to take shortcuts especially when it came to his education and especially now that it's his final year and he needs to get ready for college.

He still has no clue on what he's going to study. He goes to his closet and when he opens it he was half expecting Rukia to be in there but alas no. Over the last couple years, Ichigo steadily started to miss his friends from the Soul Society. Rukia, Renji, Ikkaku, Toshiro, Yumichika, Rangiku, hell even Byakuya and Kenpachi.

He hasn't heard from them since he lost his powers even though again Kisuke would ask if Ichigo ever wanted his powers back. But every time he asks him Ichigo would stop and think. "Should I have my powers back?" Ever since losing his powers, Ichigo has finally gotten a chance at a normal life and for once he rather enjoyed it for the most part.

Granted there were always the usual thugs who just want to start shit for the sake of shit; but even if his powers were gone he still had his training and his experience in his past battles actually helped him a lot with his thug problem. Nowadays, most would just avoid him at all costs after several thugs tried to take him but he took them all and brought them down to the floor bleeding and begging for mercy in seconds. After picking out his clothes for the day, Ichigo heads to the bathroom and showers for the next 8-9 mins before stepping out and heading back to his room to get dressed.

Once dressed in his school uniform, Ichigo goes downstairs with his book bag in hand and meanders over to the dinner table where his sister Karin was already eating her breakfast. Yuzu was busy in the kitchen finishing cooking breakfast as usual, but he just took a piece of toast and made his way over to the door.

"Hey Ichigo! What about the rest of your breakfast?" Yuzu asks, already in her uniform as she looks over her shoulder to her older brother while quickly doing dishes.

"I'm fine with toast thanks." Ichigo replied as he munches down on the piece of toast, but before he could open the door to leave.

"MORNIN! I-CHI-GO!" Coming from above and into the door, Ishin comes at Ichigo with a fatherly double drop kick only for the teen to simply move out of the way, making Ishin crash into the wall...again.

"Damn...damn it boy, why did you dodge?" Ishin slowly gets up after his failed attack.

"Because I've grown tired of your stupid sneak attacks, plus you're starting to play the same attack every morning and it's really starting to get annoying and it's pissing me off, old man!" Ichigo shouts at his father as the man removed himself from the floor only to fall back on his knees, crawling over to his late wife's memorial.

"Oh dear Masaki, I feel like I failed as a father. Our boy will be just another punk on the street! I pray for his futu-POW!" Before he could finish his dramatic speech, Ichigo came and slammed his book bag over his crazy father's head.

"Will you knock it off already!? and second, will you ever take down that ridiculous memorial of mom and just use a picture or something? Geez!" With that, Ichigo leaves his house and slams the door behind him.

"You know dad, if you just act normal for once Ichigo won't be so pissy everyday." says Karin in a bored, monotone voice as she and Yuzu leave for school as well.

"But...what did I do?" Ishin asked, pretending like he hasn't done anything.

Walking through the streets of Karakura towards his school Ichigo was in a real bad mood after another of his lunatic father's attempts to 'make' him a better man and as he walks with his deepen glare as the other students would avoid him out of fear that he would unleash his wrath on them."Damn, it's not even noon and already I'm pissed off" Ichigo said to himself as he strolled down the sidewalk. Even though Ichigo had been living a normal life, his father remained the idiot goofball that he always knew...or at least thought he knew.

As he walks towards Karakura High, Ichigo remembers his father explaining everything to the young man from how they're related to the Shibas, to the fact that Ishin himself was a former captain, and how Ichigo's mother was a spiritually aware human just like he was.

The reason he stayed in the world of the living is because he had to give up most of his spiritual power to save Masaki from dying and turning into a hollow. The more he thought about what his father explained to him the more he wanted to know if there were any more secrets that were kept from him all this time.

But his train of thought was gone when he heard a couple of thugs laughing and making inappropriate comments. Ichigo looks over to the other side of the street to see three guys surrounding a very attractive red-haired girl wearing his school's uniform and from the looks of it, the uniforms was a little too tight for her and actually showed off her body a bit.

"Hey, babe why not ditch school and hang out with us?"

"Yeah I bet we could have a REEEEEALLL good time; ya know what I mean?"

"So wadda'ya say babydoll? Wanna hang with us? We're Karakura's Triple 7 Gang! We're real legit up in this bitch town."

Ichigo had heard about these jokers before. Supposedly, they're a new gang in town that came over from some other town not too far from Karakura and started to throw their weight around against other gangs and even going so far as forcing smaller gangs to join them; but really they're no different from the other gangs Ichigo had dealt with in the past. They always use cheap intimidation tactics and the numbers game to get their way.

"Oh I'm sorry, you guys seem nice but I have to respectfully turn down your offer" says the busty redhead and just as she was about to pass them, the three gang members blocked her path.

"Come on babe, just hang out with us. We'll be real gentle with ya, right fellas?"

"Yeah!" The trio starts to close in on the girl, leading her to back up against the wall with no way to get out.

Even being surrounded by intimidating thugs, the girl just acts like nothing was wrong, just sporting a smile. "Sorry guys, maybe a rain check, kay? Later." Just as she was going to go under one of the guy's arms, the other blocks.

"Hey! You have any idea who we are? You have any idea who you're dealing with, huh?"

"She already said NO! Why don't you clowns take a hint?" This caught both the trio and the girl's attention as they look over at Ichigo unable to standby any longer. The former substitute soul reaper walks over the trio and confronts them.

"Listen punk, this ain't any of your business! If you know what's good for ya, you'd keep walkin'!" Acting on his bravado, the leader of the trio walks up to Ichigo, getting up in his face.

Which was a bad decision on his part as Ichigo, without warning, gave the lead guy a strong headbutt, knocking him to the ground and giving him a broken nose on the first hit.

"Well guess what? Now it is my business!" Ichigo then lets his book bag fall to the ground, seeing that this could take a bit.

The leader shuffles himself back up with his gang backing him up. "Alright Strawberry Bitch, you're dead!" The trio rush towards Ichigo to give him a real gang beat down (if only they knew of Ichigo's strength).

A few minutes later, all three gang members are on the floor beaten to a pulp with Ichigo standing over them victorious, but still has his usual scowl on his face as he goes back to his bag only to see it being held by the red-haired girl.

"Hey thanks for the save, hero" says the girl with ever present smile on her face as she hands over Ichigo's bag to him.

"Nah, don't mention it." Ichigo as he takes back his bag from the girl as she hands it over to him.

"My name is Rias by the way."

"Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Nice to meet you, Ichigo."

"So I take it you're new around here."

"Why, yes. I just transferred here today."

"Really? Little weird doing that during the middle of the semester."

"Well certain things came up with my folks so I had to come here."

"Oh ok I can get that." Says Ichigo as he remembers his little tussle with his father this morning.

"But you know I'm kinda lost, so can you show me the way to the school."

"Sure I can walk you there." Ichigo and Rias walk together towards Karakura High leaving the gang members on the ground sobbing and moaning in pain.

Once they reached the school grounds Ichigo and Rias are greeted by Orihime with her morning smile and usual cheery disposition.

"Morning, Ichigo!" Orihime shouted, waving her hand up to greet her friend.

"Hey Orihime." Ichigo waving her back calmly while Rias just looks at her with the ever present smile on her face.

"Oh, who's your new friend?" she asked after walking up to them.

"I'm Rias nice to meet you." Rias giving her hand to Orihime to shake.

"Oh, it s nice to meet you, Rias. My name is Orihime Inoue, I haven't seen you around before. Are you new here?"

"Why yes, I just transferred today in fact. I got lost on the way but Ichigo helped me out."

"Ah it was no big deal." Ichigo waves it off like it was nothing.

"Oh Ichigo's always there to help. In fact, last summer Ichigo practically stayed in my house just to protect me from the mecha robots that were going to take over." Orihime exclaimed, waving her hands about comedicaly.

Rias just looks at Orihime like she had two heads as a sweat drop.

"Orihime that never happened." Ichigo says deadpanned almost face palming

"Oops, hehehe, silly me, I must have dreamed it." she responded, rubbing the back of her head, completely embarrassed.

"Of course you did, are you eating your carrot chocolate and vanilla ice cream before bed again?"

"Silly Ichigo, I have carrot vanilla mixed with chocolate ice cream and wasabi sauce before bed. I heard somewhere that wild food gives you the most amazing dreams!"

Both Ichigo and Rias just stand there looking at Orihime and then Rias looks over to Ichigo with a confused and concerned look on her face.

"Ah...don't worry this kind of thing is normal to her, and though it may sound strange her cooking is not that bad."

Just as Orihime was about to say something the school bell rang alerting them that it s time to get in.

"Welp better get in before the gym teacher gets his panties in a bunch. He's been going on and on about me being some delinquent when I'm just trying to graduate this year."

"Oh I see, so you're a senior." Rias said.

"Yeah hopefully I could graduate this year." says Ichigo as the three head into the school with Rias still follow them.

"So Rias, any idea on which home room you're going to be in?" Ichigo asks as they continue to walk in the halls

Going through her pocket Rias pulls out a piece of paper with information on her home room. "Why yes, I am heading to room A-15."

"What a coincidence! That's our home room too!" Orihime exclaimed.

"Alright then let's get going." Ichigo leading the way when suddenly...

"I-CHI-GO!" charging at the orange haired student at the speed of light was the ever hyper Keigo but just as he was about to tackle Ichigo. Only to find his face against Ichigo's foot.

"Hey Keigo." says Ichigo nonchalantly as he keeps on walking like nothing happened.

"Is he going to be alright?" asked Rias with a concerned look on her face.

"He's never alright. But that's Keigo."

"I...chi..go...why?" Keigo still lying on the floor until Mizuiro passes by him.

"Huh, what are you doing on the floor, Mr. Asano? Don't you know it's bad for your health?" says Mizuiro, another classmate who walked up to the scene.

Once in the home room, everybody took their seats and their teacher Misato Ochi introduces Rias to the class.

"Alright everyone this is Rias Gremory and she is going to be joining us this semester." says Ms. Ochi as everyone in the room begins to whispers with the guys saying about Rias being a major bombshell while the girls are talking about how pretty she is.

"Well Miss Gremory, I hope you would feel at home with us and you can take any of the spare seats we have available."

"Alright then." Rias looks around and spots a seat and takes it only because the seat is right next to Ichigo.

Once she takes her seat Ichigo glances over in her direction.

"Seriously?"

"Well you did help me out this morning." and by saying that the whole room begins to whisper coming up with crazy conclusions of Ichigo and Rias already dating, that they are related in some form or that they already "did it" causing many to snicker and laugh which got Ichigo s attention and annoyance.

But with a single glare shot from Ichigo the whole room went silent.

"Yup still got it." says Ichigo which got Rias giggling.

On the entrance of Karakura a group of teens enter all wearing different school uniforms than the ones of Karakura.

"So is this the place that Buchou-senpai is?" says a brown haired young man with a pervy look to him that would probably be on a watch list.

"Aye, aye her demonic presence can be felt here." says Akeno the raven haired queen of the group as she acts as the temporary leader of the group.

"But why would she come all the way here in this middle of nowhere town?" says Koneko the petite one of the group with white hair, hazel eyes and her most noticeable feature being her long bangs and her cute kitty hair clip.

"Maybe Buchou-senpai is looking for something?" asks Asia with her ever present innocence, her hands folded in front of frame.

"But then why here specifically?" Kiba says as the handsome young man with short blonde hair with grey eyes walks into the entrance of Karakura and looks around curiously with the rest following suit.

"Hmmmm...maybe we should split up and look around and see if we could spot her. Plus we can cover more ground that way." Akeno suggests as she takes the main street.

"Good plan, if one of us finds her call with your phones or just send a flare spell." says Kiba as he takes the left side of the town.

"Alright then everyone pick your street and let's look for Rias."

"Right." and with that the group splits up taking the streets of Karakura town in search of their missing buchou.

Back at Karakura High, it was lunch time as Ichigo, Orihime and Rias head up to the roof of the school to have their lunch without having the entire class watching them. Joining them is Tatsuki wanting to know more about Rias and Ichigo's relationship much to the former substitute soul reaper's chagrin.

"Come on, Ichigo spill it."

"There's nothing to spill Tatsuki. I just met Rias today after I took care of some punks that were bothering her, no big deal. Why are you so interested, anyway?"

"Oh so you played prince charming saving the damsel in distress, huh?"

"Shut up! I just saw those guys and their stupid faces all up in her business so I knocked them straight into next week, end of story."

"Oh Ichigo you can tell her how you whisked me away from those bad men like a knight in shining armor."

Ichigo face palms as they reached the rooftop, the warm sun greeting them as the open roof was completely free for the group to use.

Then on the roof they see a large brown skin teenager and a pale skinny teenager sitting on the floor of the roof. They were eating their respective lunches by the end of the roof in their usual spot but when they heard the door to the roof open they look over and sees a few familiar faces and a new face coming over to them.

"Yo Chad, Uryu." Ichigo calls them as the trio approach the two.

"Hey." said Chad raising his hand to greet Ichigo.

"Kurosaki." Uryu replied, pushing his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose in a casual manner.

Uryu then spots the new face of Ichigo's group. "And I take it you're the new student of his class right?"

"Why, yes my name is Rias Gremory. Nice to meet you."

"Ishida Uryu, it's a pleasure."

"Wait, how do you know she's on my class?"

"Word tends to spread quickly Kurosaki."

"Did you know that Ichigo saved Rias from a bunch of a-holes"

"Yeah and then a pack of killer robots from space rampage through the streets and Ichigo used his kung-fu powers to save the day."

"Oh Orihime you and your wild imagination." Tatsuki said, ruffling Orihime's hair a bit.

Once Rias says her introductions with Uryu she turns her attention to Chad and delivers her introduction to him as well which Chad responded with a simple "Hello" .

With introductions out of the way Ichigo, Rias, Orihime and Tatsuki join Uryu and Chad for lunch. While having lunch, Ichigo ends up spitting his drink after Rias says that Ichigo saved her from being raped by a trio of no good delinquents. While Rias tells the story, in one of the hospitals of Karakura, a trio of bandaged-up gang members suddenly sneezed at the same time.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a devious pair of eyes appeared behind Rias followed by two small, anxious hands reaching around her and taking hold of her enormous chest catching Rias completely off guard. "Wow! Well with breasts like these, I'd want to tap that all the way to next-POW!" said Chiziru who was thankfully interrupted with a straight karate kick to the face from Tatsuki, knocking the girl away from Rias.

"Jeez Chiziru! Here lies an innocent girl who just got harassed and threatened and here you go entering full-on creep mode as usual!" said Tatsuki, scoffing at the perverted girl now huddling in the corner and rubbing her bruised face. "Why...can't I have nice things?"

Meanwhile in the streets of downtown Issei continues to look for Rias but suddenly as he takes a right and bumps right into a strange thin and tall man and falls on his butt. Issei looks up and he sees the man before him. He wears a flashy outfit with very out of style shades and a hat that's screams too much flash.

"Oh sorry mister I didn't see you there." says the teen-devil as he gets up from the ground.

"BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA! No problem whatsoever my young, clumsy friend! I was just searching this area for no good, evil spirits that need a good talkin to! That's what I do, after all I am Don Kanonji, Spirit Medium come to exercise evil spirits from this world!"

Issei just looks at the guy and all he can think about is: ' _Wow this guy looks like he was spit straight out of the 70's.'_

"Um...yeah sure and I can tell you're doing an awesome job there, you keeping the bad spirits out and all." As he looks at him more Issei starts to remember the man in front of him and it clicked in his head. He was that crazy spiritual guy from TV bragging all the time that he vanquishes evil spirits and stuff. His parents were actually big fans of his but Issei never got the appeal since he just thought the guy was either a quack or a very good con-artist.

"Why thank you! It's always good to see loyal fans coming out to cheer and support what I do; but for now I should ask you to leave this area straight away! I sense an extremely, ultra-bad spirit around here and Don Kanonji has to take care of it pronto before someone gets hurt. So run along, boy! I'll take it from here!" As he spoke, the man spun around and twirled his staff around. Though he did seem quite out there, he was not wrong about a spirit being in the area, but he ultimately failed in pinpointing where or who exactly it was.

"Ah yeah actually I'm looking for someone." says Issei as he continues to look around.

"Aren't we all? Hehehe!"

"With crimson red hair."

"Ohhh now that might be a bit of a challenge, but a young guy like you should find one lickety-split! Now run along and get to safety! You don't wanna end up dead, do ya?!"

'Says _the guy who's talking to a devil right in front of him. Not to mention I already died once and was brought back.'_ Issei thought.

"Nope but hey it was nice meeting you sir." Issei then gives the strange man a small bow and leaves the area continuing the search for Rias.

"Rias...just where are you?"

Back at the school, the bell had rang to end classes for the day. All the students walked out the doors, chatting with their friends on their way home from school. Ichigo and Rias had said their goodbyes to the group before walking toward his home. Ichigo meant to ask where Rias was staying earlier, but got distracted once they arrived at school. "So then you got a place to crash while you're here?" he asked, carrying his school bag over his shoulder.

"Oh...uh actually I don't have a place...yet." Rias to one side rather sheepishly avoiding Ichigo's gaze.

"Hm? What do you mean not yet?"

"Well...I kinda didn't think things through when I first came here. I was just mad with a thing I have with my folks and I just want to get away from it all, you know."

"I guess I can understand that. Still you shouldn't stay far from home for too long. Your family's gotta be worried about you."

"But Ichigo...there's something I have to tell you."

Just then, before Rias could tell Ichigo, Akeno appeared before the two of them, her signature smirk on her face as she posed on the sidewalk. "Well well! I knew you had to be somewhere around here, I was hoping I'd get to you first. What have you been up to, Rias?" she asked in a seemingly sweet voice, though Ichigo thought it was fake and took up a defensive position before the girl.

Seeing Ichigo on the defensive Rias quickly gets between them. "No Ichigo it's ok, Akeno is...my Queen."

"Wait she's your what now?"

"It's like I said before. There's something I have to tell you and it's important."

Before saying anything Rias takes a deep breath and looks at Ichigo directly to his eyes and she speaks.

"Ichigo...I'm a devil...and I'm in real trouble...can you please help me?"

 **To Be Continued!**

 **(A/N: Yes I know it has been a long time but I'm back with a new story and this time it's a 3 part one-shot crossover of Bleach and Highschool DxD. The crossover takes place after the Aizen's defeat and around the 1st season of Highschool DxD. I'd like to thank my friend for helping me co-write and edit the fic and Tyler if your reading this thanks again :) . But before anything I'm saying this right now, both the Fullbring arc and the Thousand Year Blood War are scrapped. With all that said this will be something different and I hope you guys would enjoy it. Please read and review, till next chapter ;) )**


	2. Meetings and Battles

**A/N: Hello everyone and apologies for making you guys wait but trust me it is worth it as finally the second chapter is here and I have some news that will change the fic forever. But for now enjoy the chapter as we get to see what does Rias want with our guy with orange hair. R/R please and thank you :).**

Ichigo just stood there as Rias tells him that she is a devil and she needs his help. Thinking that he might misheard her Ichigo wanted to make sure he heard right and asked.

"Wait….what did you say?"

"Well Ichigo what I said is true, I am a devil and I need your help." Rias said matter of factually while Akeno just stands there with ever present smile but inside she was surprised that Rias would just outright tell a human that she's a devil. Even if he were not to believe her it was a rather bold thing to do.

"Look I know of your powers Ichigo and how you were the one that ended the winter war and saved your home town."

"Ok, ok slow down, let's take it to the top and start in the beginning."

"First off, how did you know that I was a soul reaper and about the whole Aizen fiasco?"

"From Mr. Kisuke Urahara."

"Hat and clogs?!"

"Yes, he said that you could help me."

"Ah Rias?" Akeno getting both of their attention feeling that she was ignored a little there.

"Oh right you two aren't properly introduce to each other yet."

"Ichigo this is my best friend and Queen Akeno Himejima. Akeno this is Ichigo Kurosaki he's a good friend that I met today."

"It's very nice to meet you." Akeno gives her hand to Ichigo to shake.

"Uh...yeah it's a pleasure." Ichigo takes Akeno's hand and shook it but he quickly turns his attention to Rias.

"Rias….I'm sorry but I'm not a soul reaper anymore, I lost my powers two years ago after I used my ultimate technique on Aizen and during that time I haven't seen a single spirit, hollow or another soul reaper."

"That's fine, because I have a way for you to gain new power."

"And that would be?"

"Before we go into it let's go somewhere more private."

"Why?"

"Because this isn't exactly the best place to talk about this sort of thing."

Ichigo then looks around and noticed that there are still people walking around and if they hear what they are talking about it could get complicated.

"Don't worry I know a good place we could talk." Rias gives Ichigo a wink with her tongue sticking out a bit.

"Which would be?" says Ichigo with a raised eyebrow.

"Mr. Urahara's shop."

"Alright then, let's go." Ichigo then follows Rias back to Urahara's shop and with Akeno walking next to him.

-Karakura Park-

Walking around the park for a while now Asia continues to look for Rias and so far she had no such luck as she spots a bench and decides to take a small break as she walks over and takes a seat letting her feet rest after all that walking.

"Oh my, even after all that searching I still couldn't find Rias. Not to mention this park is so big too."

"I really hope the others are having better luck finding her than I-"

"Waaaah!"

Before she could finish talking to herself, Asia's train of thought was interrupted when she heard what sounds like a small child crying. Acting on her good nature she gets up and follows the cries of the child leading her towards the jungle gym.

There she sees the child a small boy with short dark brown hair and wearing a baby blue shirt and brown short pants reaching to his knees. He was probably around age 7 or 8. But the one thing that catches her attention is a long chain that's sticking out of his chest.

Seeing no one else around Asia approaches the crying child. "Hey there, are you lost?"

The crying boy slowly stops crying and looks up and sees Asia looking at him with a soft smile.

"Wait you can see me?"

"Well of course I can see you, silly. Why are you so sad? Did you lose your parents?"

"My parents can't see me, no one could see me."

"But I can see you fine. My name is Asia by the way what's yours."

"Tenchi." The small boy replied.

"Well Tenchi, let's go look for your parents. I'm sure they miss you, so where's the last time you saw them." Even when she already has a mission to do Asia can't just leave the boy alone like this.

"At the hospital" he replies. "I was lying on a bed and the last thing I remember was my mommy crying, and the next thing I knew I'm here in the park like I was teleported here and I have this weird chain on my chest and it hurts every time when I pull it."

As she listens to the boy Asia does recall passing by a hospital that's rather far from the park just three to four blocks by the east gate but still something just doesn't add up. How can no one notice him? Not to mention how he could get here as fast as he said and that chain.

"I see, well let's go back to the hospital. We can't have your parents waiting."

But before the young boy Tenchi would answer a sudden loud inhuman shriek takes both by surprise as they look towards where the shriek came from and from a black distorted portal they would see a large lizard-like creature with its body being a sick greenish color with six long spider-like legs, two long tails with a large basket ball size hole on its chest and its head is covered in a bone-white mask that is shaped like a snake's head. It was a hollow and the creature jumps from the portal and lands in front of Asia and Tenchi looking at them with hungry and predatory eyes.

"Wha-what is that?" Asia taken aback by such a creature as never in her life did she encounter such a thing and the energy that surrounds it as it's nothing but emptiness.

"It's a monster!" Tenchi quickly hides behind Asia.

Not knowing on what to do in this situation against this unknown creature before her and Tenchi Asia's best bet is to get away from the creature.

"Come on, let's run!" As Asia takes Tenchi's arm with her hand she passed right through him.

"Wha-Tenchi?"

But as they stop and without warning the lizard-like hollow pounces at them with it's mouth wide open ready to take a bite on both Asia and Tenchi in one fell swoop as Asia stares at it's pitch-black mouth in terror.

"Santen Kesshun, I Reject!"

"El Directo!"

Wincing and shielding Tenchi Asia was expecting to be chomped on but the attack never came as she opens her eyes she finds herself and Tenchi inside a bright orange colored barrier. Feeling a presence behind her Asia turns around and sees an older buxom girl with long bright orange hair.

"It's ok, we're here to help." says Orihime as she keeps their barrier up while Chad fights the hollow with his brazo derecho del gigante.

"El Directo!" Chad hits the hollow with another blast from his arm as the creature gets back up on its spider legs and opens its mouth wide and releases a cero directly at Chad but the large teen dodges and delivers a powerful punch right on the Hollow's face but it's not enough to shatter it's mask.

The hollow fights back by using its two tails as whips to knock off Chad from the ground but being as large as a small bus, Chad saw the attack coming and jumps upward and using gravity as a momentum, charges up his arm and delivers another 'El Directo' directly on the hollow's mask, this time completely shattering it. As its mask crumbled into nothingness, the rest of the hollow evaporated into spirit particles, never to be seen again.

Once the fight is over and Chad gives Orihime the OK, she takes down her barrier that was protecting Asia and Tenchi.

"Thank you so much for saving us!" Asia gives a small bow before Chad and Orihime.

"Oh on it's no problem at all, this is kinda our normal thing around here."

"It is?"

"Why yes! Oh, where are my manners? My name is Orihime Inoue and this is Sado Yasutora but we call him Chad."

"Hey" Chad simply raised his hand as he approaches the two girls plus Tenchi.

"It's nice to meet you, my name is Asia Argento." Asia then looks over to the child that's hiding behind her. "Oh and this is Tenchi."

Orihime looks at the young boy and notices the chain on his chest. "So that Hollow was after you?"

"Huh? It was?"

"Yes it probably sensed your spiritual energy and came after you."

"But he should be safe now right?" Asia looking at Orihime hoping that Tenchi would be safe.

"Yes but only for a little while. There's always more lurking around somewhere."

"Orihime is correct." The four of them looked over to see Uryu walking towards them.

"Oh Uryu!"

"I see you guys already took care of the hollow."

"Mhm." Chad nodded to Uryu.

"Wait, wait but if there are more of those monsters what would happen to Tenchi?" Asia looking more concerned than before.

"Simple, he has to move on. From the looks of his chain, he doesn't have much time left."

"What does that mean?"

"It means if Tenchi doesn't move on before that chain disappears completely he's going to turn into a hollow like the one Chad destroyed."

"Bu-but what about my mom and dad?" Tenchi having a hard time taking in all of what he's been hearing from the people around him.

" _If only Rukia was here, she could handle this no problem. At least I can do something."_ Orihime thought. It was then that Orihime steps in, kneels before the young boy to be on the same eye level as him and comforts Tenchi. "Tenchi, you have to understand if you stay any longer your parents won't find closure and you'd risk bumping into another one of those monsters. I know you will miss them but when you move on you will be in a better place."

"Like heaven?" Asia asked

"Yeah... something like that."

Tenchi simply stands there, thinking of what Orihime told him, even if he doesn't understand completely. Then he saw a couple walking across the park just several feet away but he recognized them. They were his parents as they sit on a bench as his father was comforting his mother who was in a state of depression.

Tenchi quickly leaves the teens as he dashed towards where his parents are. Asia tries to follow but Orihime stops her. "No it's something he has to do himself."

Tenchi reaches them and stands in front of them but they can't see him. "Don't worry Tsuki...I know Tenchi is in a better place and he's no longer sick."

"But it's just so sudden, Yushiro. He was only 6 years old."

"I know….but even with the disease, he fought as long as he did. I'm sure...I'm sure he's in a better place….at the very least let's remember all the times we spent as a family, how we spent our weekends at this park, how he loved playing in the sandbox and the jungle gym."

Tenchi's mother sits and remembers when Tenchi was born and how he was the joy of their lives thinking all the good times they had made her smile knowing that at least she will always cherish her memories.

"Yes...Tenchi….we love you." With that hearing them saying those words that Tenchi begins to glow as he even thought he doesn't know it he found peace with himself as he begins to move on to the afterlife as he slowly fades away in a bright light.

"I love you too, mommy and daddy." Tenchi says his last words before moving towards the afterlife with Orihime, Chad, Asia and Uryu watching from afar.

"So he moved on." said Uryu as he fixes his glasses a bit.

"Looks that way." said Chad

"I'm glad he could move on." Orihime says with a smile.

"WAAAH! That was so sad but beautiful at the same time." Asia cries as anime tears comes out of her eyes.

Then Uryu looks over to Asia having noticed for a while that she's not from around here.

"Excuse me...Asia was it? You're not from around here correct?"

"Um no I'm from out of town and I'm actually looking for someone."

"Really? Maybe we can help." Orihime holds Asia's hands willing to help anyone in need.

"Really you would do that?"

"Yup! Chad, Uryu and I can help find the person that you're looking for, right guys?"

"Eh sure I got nothing going on at the moment" says Uryu as Chad simply nodded, agreeing to help.

"Thank you so much!"

"No problem. So what's his name?"

"Actually he is a she and her name is Rias Gremory."

Once Asia said the name the three just stood there having already met the person in question back in there school.

"Eh? What's wrong? Is it something I said?"

"No actually we know her." says Orihime truthfully

"Really!"

"Asia!"

Asia, Orihime, Chad and Uryu look over and sees both Issei and Kiba with Koneko just close behind.

"Oh it's you guys." Asia says happily.

"I take it they're friends of yours?" said Uryu as he walks next Asia

"Yup, we've split up when we came here looking for Asia."

"I see." Uryu begins to think for a minute thinking the last time he saw Rias and that would be when school was over and everyone was going home. But Rias stuck around with Ichigo. "Hmmm...maybe."

"Hmm?" Asia looks at Uryu curiously.

"I think I have a pretty good idea where Rias might be."

-Urahara Shop-

Ichigo, Rias and Akeno reaches Urahara's shop with Ichigo's face getting serious. It's been a long time since he visited Urahara. Rias then approaches the building and knocks on the slide door.

"Kisuke I'm back."

Opening the slide door was the one and only Kisuke Urahara. "Why hello Ms. Gremory and I see you brought Ichigo with you and some girl I don't know yet."

"Ah Ichigo I see you've finally found your girlfriend."

"SHUT UP! She's not my girlfriend." Ichigo getting annoyed by Kisuke's usual antics.

"Are you sure? She's quite the catch."

"Oh Mr. Urahara stop me and Ichigo just met, oh and this is my best friend Akeno."

"It's very nice to meet you sir."

"It's a pleasure and please call me Kisuke or just Mr. Urahara whichever works for you. But enough talk please come inside I'm sure you have much to talk about."

"I have a feeling that we do." says Ichigo as the trio goes inside Urahara's shop with Ichigo having the gut feeling that he's gotten himself into something big with Rias.

Once inside the shop and have taken off their shoes Urahara takes them to a large room with a small table as Ichigo, Rias and Akeno sitting across each other around the table.

"So Rias about this power that you would give me."

"Right, give me a sec." Using her magic Rias summons a chess piece a knight piece to be exact.

"Ichigo I can make you reborn as a devil and be part of my peerage, you would become my knight since you're good with a sword."

"Question; what the heck is a peerage and why do I have to be revived as a devil to get this power?"

"Well Ichigo you see a peerage is..."

-One hell of an explanation later-

"Oh...I see." Ichigo says as he takes everything while Urahara was taking notes about what Rias explained.

"So I'll ask again, Ichigo would you help me?"

"Before we go any further I won't turn into a devil."

"What?"

"No offense Rias but in the last several years I've been a lot of things and I don't think I want devil to be one of them."

"Alright but then how would you help?"

Ichigo stops and thinks for a minute thinking on how to answer her question. He needs to know her full story.

"Rias, before anything I need to know your story, more specifically, what is it that you're in trouble for? I need to know before I could give you my answer."

Rias lets out a sigh thinking it's time for her to tell how she got in this mess and how she got herself to Karakura Town.

"Fair enough Ichigo... I owe you that much and I will tell you everything." Rias sets herself up first as she clears her throat to begin her story.

\- A few nights ago in the ORC building-

"I can't believe they are still insisting on this marriage when they know full well that I have no love for that Riser." After another meeting with her peerage, Rias and Akeno where the only ones in the club room while the rest returned home for the day.

But right after her meeting, Rias receives another message from her family about her upcoming arranged marriage with Riser and Rias.

"I feel you Rias but what can we do?" Akeno asks, standing right beside Rias, being her right hand girl for so many years.

Rias remains sitting in her chair as she goes through her thoughts on the whole ordeal.

" _Issei is still not strong enough yet and not to mention Asia is still new to all of this….."_

"No matter what I say, no one would listen." Rias stands from her chair and walks over to the window looking outside as the moon slowly rises taking the sun's place for the night.

"I really feel trapped this time."

"Rias"

Rias takes a deep breath as she looks over to Akeno.

"It's alright Akeno just call it for the night."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure I'll probably need to cool off but I just need some alone time for now."

"If you say so." Akeno then summons a portal and walks right to it taking her home leaving Rias alone in the room.

Rias remains looking outside of the window, trying to find a way to get out of this whole marriage situation. She wants to marry the one that she loves not one that would just use her family name for their own agendas. In Riser's case, he just wants to get in her pants and "preserve" the pure-blood line.

Feeling frustrated and trapped, Rias just needs to get away from it all and she did just that. Opening a portal through a random location, Rias just walks into it like what Akeno did as she closes her eyes with her portal teleporting her anywhere but here and hell.

Once the portal did its magic, Rias opens her eyes and finds herself in the middle of a small city, to be more specific a small park.

"Hmmm...where exactly am I?" Rias begins to walk while looking around to see if there's anything that she's familiar with and at first thought she was still in her town but so far it didn't look like it.

"Well I did aim for anywhere but back home so I guess this would do." Rias continues to walk while listening the crickets chirping in the night as she exits the park and sees the sign with the park's name written on it.

"Karakura Park? Hmmm….never heard of this place." Rias continues to walk in the streets of Karakura but unknown to her she's being stalked and, lucky for her, it's not a pervert.

In the shadows of an alleyway lies a hollow on the prowl. It has the appearance of a twin headed white masked wolf with pitch-black fur with the hole in the middle of its chest and sporting three tails and this more than a regular hollow as this one is a menos grande class hollow, an Adjuchas to be specific.

It's been on the hunt for most of the night; already devoured a hopeless drunk in the street but it was not satisfied. Then the adjucha caught the scent of a unknown being it didn't recognized before. The creature follows the scent and finally finds the source, Rias.

"...argh...must….eat...must….fill…..the emptiness….I….must…..DEVOUR!" Unable to hold itself any longer the adjuchas attacks Rias with a pounce, firing a cero at her.

Rias heard the adjuchas's cry and dodges both attacks. "Sorry I'm not on the menu and if you know what's good for you, you'll leave me be." Rias charges up one of her destruction orbs ready to fight this creature before her.

But for the adjuchas sensing Rias' power made it crave for her more. "S-such….power...must eat...you….must….no….I WILL….EAT!" the adjuchas dash towards Rias with both of its mouths open and ready to eat the crimson devil but only for Rias to fire two of her destruction orbs at its mouths causing a big explosion with Rias taking flight into the night sky and away from the beast.

As the smoke clears Rias' attack barely did but a few scratches on the face masks of the adjuchas. "This could be problematic, I better return home."Just as Rias opens a portal back to her room the adjuchas jumps and flies straight at her breaking her concentration and the portal to dissipate.

Able to dodge in time Rias lands on the roof of a two-story building but quickly dodges again when the adjuchas fires another cero at her. "Damn, that thing's fast." Rias then counters by firing several destruction orbs at the adjuchas but like before the they barely did any damage and the creature is hot on her trail.

"I have to do something or I'll be this mutt's dinner." Rias is in a very dangerous situation, unable to summon the portal with the hollow disrupting her every time she tried and she can't call out for help as she is too far away from any of her peerages to assist her and for some reason she can't contact her family in hell.

As she was about to fire another destruction orb, the adjuchas pounces on Rias and pins her down with both of her arms under it's powerful paws. Rias is trapped.

"No...not like this! I don't want to die like this!" Rias struggles under the hollow's weight but she can't get free.

"Argh...HOOOOOWL….now….to ..feeaaaast." The adjuchas opens both of its mouths and as it was about to eat Rias's head.

" _Akeno, Kiba, Koneko, Asia….and Issei….I'm sorry….I guess this is goodbye."_

"Now scream, Benihime!"

" _Huh?"_

Before the adjuchas would react, a beam of red light chops off one of its heads causing much pain to the hollow and forcing it to back away, letting go of Rias. As the cerberus-like hollow backs away, Rias quickly gets on her feet and sees the one who saved her from being adjuchas chow.

"Sorry for the delay, but I thought you could handle this hollow." A strange and tall man with messy almost blond hair wearing a dark coat, which sports a white diamond pattern along its bottom half, with a dark green shirt and pants underneath. He also sports a green striped white bucket hat and he wields what looks like a cane sword that was glowing red just now.

"Hollow?" Rias had heard of these creatures but have never seen one in person.

"Yes, but I guess it was a little too strong for you to handle. But fear not I'm here for the final act of this battle." The adjuchas still in pain after losing one of its heads but was still able to fight while its decapitated head disintegrated into nothing.

"Argh...you...will…..pay...for that…" growls the adjuchas as it stumbles a bit but steadies itself.

"Oh I'll pay! You want it in cash or credit?" the man said with a happy voice.

"I WILL DEVOUR YOU!" The adjuchas charges right towards the man but the man vanishes and appears again right behind the adjuchas-type hollow.

"Sorry, but I like to live and it's such a shame that you have to be the one to go….eh….circle of life I suppose." Sheathing his sword into his cane, the man simply walks away while the aduchas's last head falls off after being cut clean off its shoulders, ending its life as it disintegrates into nothing.

"Who...who are you?" Rias just stands there in both amazement and shock as the once powerful creature she was fighting was defeated by the man that's before her.

"Well miss, I am Kisuke Urahara. Owner of the Urahara shop that's right across the street." Using his cane he points the shop which was visible where Rias can see it.

"Uh...thank you for saving me, I thought I was done for." Rias gives a small bow before Kisuke.

"Mine is Rias Gremory by the way."

"Nice to meet you Ms. Gremory, but someone like yourself shouldn't be out this late at night."

"I guess you're right, I'd best be going home now" Rias said as she concentrates to open another portal but when she opens one it quickly closes.

"Oh come on, don't tell me I'm low on magic."

"It appears so, I guess you're stuck here for the time being."

"Argh….this just isn't my night and I really don't need this right now." Rias looks at the floor as she was not having the best night right now.

"You know Miss Gremory, if you want you can spend the night in my shop. It has an apartment inside and a spare room you can use."

Rias looks at Kisuke and thought about his offer, she doesn't have money for a hotel, she has no place to go and her magic is completely low.

"I promise not to peek." says Kisuke as he gives Rias a thumbs up.

"Very well, Mr. Urahara. I'll take up on your offer."

"Fantastic I'll have one of my employees have your room ready, but if you don't mind me saying so. I feel you have much on your mind."

"Yes...I...do, a lot actually." Rias said looking down with so much going through her mind she could really use a hand.

"Maybe I could be of some assistance."

"Well at this point Mr. Urahara I'll take any help that I can." says Rias as she follows Kisuke back to the shop hoping that the man before her could help her out of this situation.

-Urahara Shop, Present Day-

"And that's how I got here and Kisuke helped me settle in but sadly the rent is a little expensive."

"You don't say?" Ichigo looks at Kisuke with an annoyed look on his face.

"What? I need to make a living you know."

"You own a shop!"

"True but business was getting slow so I had to do something to pay the bills." Kisuke says as he keeps the fan over his mouth which made Ichigo eyebrow twitch.

"Yeah right." Ichigo then looks over to Rias wanting to hear the rest of her story.

"Yes, well Kisuke told me a lot about you Ichigo and after what you did this morning I can safely say I believe when he says you have what it takes and that you can help me."

"So that's the whole story, Ichigo."

After hearing her story Ichigo then looks over at Kisuke with the man holding his fan covering his face but he can hear him snicker quietly which raised Ichigo's anger towards him but he can worry about that later as he looks at Rias.

"Alright Rias, so to be completely sure about all of this. After what "Hat and Clogs" here told you about me, you want me to help you to get out of this arranged marriage with this Riser guy and by the way you mentioned his name I take he's a real swell guy, and I'll probably have to fight this guy for your freedom. Right?

"Yes that pretty much covers it."

Having reviewed what was told to him and after giving it much thought he has his answer. "Alright Rias I will help, but without my powers it would be difficult."

"Oh I wouldn't say that."

Ichigo, Rias and Akeno look to Kisuke as he still holds the fan covering his face but one can tell that he is grinning from ear to ear.

"What are you getting at Urahara?"

"Oh Ichigo, didn't you ever wonder when every time I asked if you wanted your powers back I never explained how it could be done?"

Ichigo just stares at Kisuke being the ever mysterious and enigmatic man that he is.

"Ok then, how?"

"I'm glad that you asked." Kisuke says with a wide grin on his face.

To be Continued!

 **(A/N: And with that this chapter comes to a close but like I said before I have some news for this fic. First of the fic will not be a one-shot 3 parter and it would go as long as around 11 to 12 chapters long, and second but I can't 100% promise it yet but I have some ideas for a possible sequel for the fic after this one is done. It's all in the matter of me checking out season 2 of Highschool DxD but I will be skipping season 3 since all I've heard that it's pretty much fan-service filler. And once again I'm sorry that you guys had to wait for a month plus week for this chapter but my own personal life can get in the way plus my usual proof reader/editor was away on vacation, so I couldn't just write it up and give you guys a crappy chapter, so sir not on my watch but at least it's here and hopefully the next chapter won't take so long. So please rate/review those really help out and with all of that said I hope you guys have a great night and take care.)**


	3. Urahara's Plan and New Friendships

**(A/N: Here we are chapter 3 and as I was writing this chapter I've been watching season 2 of Highschool DxD just to prepare for season 2 for this fic and so far it's ok and probably have some material to work with especially with Kiba's revenge sub-plot and who knows I might get the soul society involved but for now I just need to finish watching it before I do anything big. Hope you like this chapter and please do leave a review each one really helps. :) Now then let's get this episode started.)**

Ichigo, Rias and Akeno waits patiently as Kisuke got up and left the room momentarily as he heads towards the back of the shop in the large storage room as they can hear him moving around some heavy stuff.

"Need some help?!" Ichigo called out, poking his head out of the room and looking outside to the end of the hallway where the storage room is.

"No, I got it!" Kisuke answers as he comes back from the storage room holding a large rectangular black box. The box is completely black and rectangular and the most notable feature is the five locks with chains keeping it shut tight.

"Here it is, the sure-fire way of regaining your powers back" Kisuke says, acting like a child on christmas morning after setting it down on the table.

"I take it that it's inside the box. You have the keys, right?" Ichigo asks, looking at Kisuke with a skeptic look in his eyes.

"Why of course Ichigo, don't be silly!" Kisuke then pulls out a hoop of keys from under his coat. As he picks out the keys, Kisuke begins to unlock each lock one by one and placing them on the table along with the chains.

"Before I open it, I want to ask… are you sure you want to do this, Ichigo?"

"Yeah, if it means helping Rias."

"Really, really sure?"

"Just open the damn box already!"

"Fine, fine I'm opening it!" Kisuke opens the box and it began to glow brightly. A bluish light from inside filled the room, catching everyone in the room's attention as they anticipate what powerful creation Urahara just unleashed. As Kisuke places his hand into the box and then pulls it out.

Out of the black box Kisuke pulls out. "Ta-ta-da-da-rah! A spiritual sword!" Once he pulls it all the way out and Ichigo, Rias, Akeno got a better look at it, the sword appeared as a regular almost cheaply-made katana and it looked like it had seen better days with the edge being chipped in a few places.

"Ok that's it I'm out! Rias give me that knight piece! Looks like being a devil sounds a lot better than being a sucker!"

"Wait, wait, wait! Ichigo, this is an actual spirit sword. Just that it needs the main component."

"And that would be?"

"Spirit energy, or to be more precise, reiatsu aka spirit pressure. Sure it doesn't look all that impressive now but it is the tool you're going to need if you want your powers back" says Kisuke.

Noticing the serious tone in Urahara's voice for once, Ichigo listens to him with Rias and Akeno doing the same.

"Alright, Kisuke... but one question. Where are you going to get spirit energy? I know that in the Soul Society it's against their laws for them to transfer their powers to a non-soul reaper; that's what got Rukia in trouble in the first place. Are you planning on asking the Visoreds?"

"Visoreds?" Rias asked with a puzzled expression.

"They're soul reapers with hollow powers, Ms. Gremory; but sadly I lost touch with them a while ago."

"Why's that?"

"Don't know… probably out on vacation or something. For now, let me worry about that, Ichigo. As you may have guessed, I have many resources and ways to make things work to tailor my needs. I'm sure I can have this ready for you in a few days" Kisuke explained. "In the meantime I want you to start training your body again so when the time comes it can take the sword's spiritual pressure and make it it's own."

"And how am I supposed to train exactly?"

"Oh nothing special just increase your stamina a bit and do some push-ups and you should be ready to go."

Ichigo nods to what Kisuke says, agreeing with his instructions.

"But before that I need to test something out real quick. Hold still, Ichigo." Kisuke then pulls out a strange metal detector-like device, passing and waving it all over Ichigo's body.

"What are you doing?"

"Just trust me."

"Riiiight...like trusting a snake not to bite me!" Ichigo's comment got Rias and Akeno to snicker a little.

"Exactly!" after a few more scans the device sounds off. _-Beep, beep, beep.-_

"Ah here we go!" Kisuke checks the device. "Hmmm..."

"Well...what is it?" Ichigo wondering what's going through the man's head.

"Hmm….well this is very interesting" Kisuke says with a interesting grin. "Ichigo... do you still have your combat pass?"

"Yeah I do, why?"

"I kinda need it so I can get this thing started."

"Uh...ok." Ichigo then goes to his book bag and pulls out his old combat pass. He kept it with him even after he lost his powers, but for him he likes to keep it close as if it was a good luck charm. He gives the pass to Urahara as he gives a check with the detector device and it also sounds off.

"Hmmm….just as I thought."

"Eh?"

"Don't worry about it now, Ichigo. Just come back in a few days and we can work from there." Kisuke then puts the sword back into the box but didn't lock it as he will be busy tonight. As he gets up, Kisuke puts the combat pass away in his coat.

Even when he was told to not to worry about it, Ichigo remains skeptical of Urahara; then again the man was never wrong before with a few exceptions in the past but at least for now all Ichigo could do is give 'hat and clogs' a chance.

"Alright Hat and Clogs, I'll come back in a few days and I'll do the stamina thing while I wait." Ichigo then gets up and gathers his book bag, looking over to Rias.

"Well Rias I guess you'll have to wait for a little bit, sorry."

"It's alright, I can wait a few days. Heck I might use this to look around Karakura. This place seems rather nice."

"Yeah if you don't mind the crazy stuff that happens here."

"Oh I wouldn't worry about that considering what I am." Rias then gives a wink and sticking out her tongue to Ichigo as she sprouts her devil wings.

"Yeah, well see ya tomorrow. Akeno, it's been nice meeting you."

"Oh Ichigo the pleasure is all mine." Akeno said giving Ichigo her trademark smile as she waves her hand.

"Right, later." Ichigo then leaves the shop and begins to walk back home while expecting his father to surprise attack him when he gets back.

Once he's gone and Urahara begins his work on the spirit sword, Akeno and Rias are all alone in the room as the rest of the inhabitants of Urahara shop are not back yet. Tessai was still doing deliveries and restock, Ururu is tutoring Jinta on some mathematics and Yoruichi is roaming around Karakura in her black cat form.

"Well that was interesting. So how did you two meet anyway?" Akeno looks at her best friend and her King.

"Oh it's nothing really all that special. I was heading to his school to find him but instead he found me and he actually helped me out of a situation with a couple of thugs wanting to have their "fun" with me. If he wasn't there I probably would've just erased their thoughts and kept on walking."

"My! Isn't that just romantic, but can he really help with Riser? It's not that I don't think he could pull it off but it's not like we've seen him in action."

"True, though I'm hoping that will change in a few days."

"What about Issei?"

Rias remains silent for a bit as she thinks before she gives her answer. It's not like she gave up on Issei but he's still not there yet for what's to come.

"I feel that he's not there yet and I feel that Ichigo has more than what he lets on. There's just something about him that just grabs my attention."

"Is it the serious look in his eyes?" Akeno teasing Rias.

"Maybe, but I take it that you didn't come here by yourself, am I right?"

"No actually, and now that you reminded me I should let the others know that I found you and that you're ok." Akeno then pulls out her phone and begins to call Kiba.

-Karakura Park-

Kiba, Issei and Koneko reach Asia at the park while the blonde remained with Uryu, Orihime and Chad.

"Hey guys! I think we might have found Rias."

"I see you made some new friends." says Kiba.

"Yup!" Asia replied cheerfully.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kiba Yuuto and this is….ah."

Issei was just standing there when he saw Orihime and his perverted mind went from zero to a hundred in an instant as his mind is overrunned with perverted thoughts; how Orihime's bust is almost the same size as Rias and Akeno and how he would motorboat her 'til the end of time. As he thinks these thoughts, his perverted face appeared, beginning to drool a little until Koneko stomps on his foot snapping him out of it.

"OUCH!"

"Quit staring, super perv." Koneko said resolutely.

As he jumps up and down while holding his hurt foot, Issei noticed he was drooling and once his foot stops hurting he quickly wipes off the drool and stood up straight, introducing himself while giving the three Karakura teens a bow.

"My name is Issei Hyoudou, it's very nice to meet you guys."

"Koneko Toujou."

"Good to meet you guys" says Orihime as she introduces herself then Chad and lastly Uryu.

"So do you have any idea on where she'll be, Mr. Uryu?" Kiba asked, being his polite self.

"Please just Uryu, and I do have an idea bu-"

As Uryu was about to say his idea on where Rias would be, Kiba's phone begins to ring. The blonde picks up the phone and sees the caller ID.

"Oh it's Akeno." Kiba then answers the call. "Yes?...yeah everyone is with me….yes Issei is not in any trouble….yet."

"Hey!"

"Oh you found Rias?" When Kiba said that it got everyone's attention especially Issei.

"Right, right so you guys are in a Urahara shop?"

"Wait we know that place!" Orihime exclaims

"Really?" Koneko looks at the older girl.

"Yeah! We can show you guys the way."

"That would be wonderful. Don't worry Akeno we'll be there quickly. Alright then, lead the way" Kiba says.

Just as they were about to head off to Urahara shop, they stopped in their tracks when they heard a loud inhuman shriek from above. Once they looked up they see the sky starting to crack and then like a mouth the crack begins to open and like bats out of hell a swarm of hollows begins to pour out of the garganta.

"Wha-what the heck are those?!" Issei shocke of what he's looking at.

"Hollows" Uryu answers as he prepares his Heilig Bogen and begins to fire his arrows at the hollows, but some of them managed to dodge his attack.

"Get back! This is going to get messy." Uryu warns the four newcomers until Kiba walks right next to him and Koneko did the same.

"I wouldn't worry about us, we might not know how to fight these things but I take it they have a weakness to exploit." Kiba then activates his sacred gear, Sword Birth and summons a couple of swords.

Uryu looks at Kiba when he summoned the two swords but remains calm since it takes a lot more than that to surprise him. "Just aim at their faces that's their weak spot."

"Roger that." Kiba then charges ahead with Koneko close behind him having heard what Uryu said about the hollows weakness.

Kiba then comes face to face with a cat-like hollow but it was fairly weak as Kiba quickly destroys it with a few sword slices.

Koneko then follows up by jumping on the top of the swings and punches a bird-faced hollow, shattering its mask and destroying it instantly.

"Not so tough!" Suddenly a humanoid-shaped hollow grabs Koneko, but the cat-like girl manages to break free and, seeing an opening, Chad goes for the kill.

"El Directo!" Chad hits the hollow right on the abdomen knocking it down and while still in the air Koneko using gravity for momentum smashes the hollow's mask with one powerful punch destroying the creature as she lands next to Chad.

"Thanks for the assist."

"Don't mention it."

Meanwhile, Kiba saw a hollow that looked like a cross between a praying mantis and a scorpion while having the claws of both creatures and a tail armed with a long and deadly looking stinger. Kiba kept reflecting the hollow's claws and pincers with his twin sword but the blonde swordsman was watching the hollow's every move and eventually after much scanning and dodging attacks he sees an opening. As the hollow attacks this time using its tail stinger Kiba jumps up and replaces his two swords with a long sword and with a few swipes he cuts the tail in three pieces causing the hollow to screech.

Taking advantage of the hollow's distracted state, Kiba comes right towards one of its pincers and jumps on it, using it as a foothold and with one powerful slash Kiba decapitates the hollow, killing it instantly.

"Impressive!" Kiba looks over to see Uryu having taken down another hollow with his Heilig Bogen. "Is that your power?"

"Sort of... but I still have more left in me." On his right, a hollow tries to ambush Kiba but he quickly counters the hollow by stabbing it right in the facemask destroying it. On his left, Uryu notices a bulky and large hollow was about to smash him only for the quincy to quickly dodge and fire a few arrows at its torso as well as another right between its eyes, destroying the creature.

As all of this was going on, Issei already has his boosted gear on and during all that time he was boosting up, reaching his 5th boost.

" **BOOST!"**

"Alright now I'm ready! Can't let everybody show me up! Come on and get some!" exclaimed Issei as a goblin looking hollow heard him and went straight for him.

"Alright you ugly bastard have some of this! Dragon Shot!" Issei fires a beam of energy concentrated by his magical power and hits the hollow even though the hollow was heavily damaged it keeps charging towards Issei.

"Oh crap!" Before the hollow could hit Issei, the young man was surrounded by an orange pyramidal shield.

"Shiten Kōshun, I reject!" Using the hollow's strength against it Orihime fires back its attack and destroys the hollow completely.

"Wow...that was cool, thanks" Issei proclaimed.

"Your welcome."

"Wow that was amazing, how did you pull that off?" Asia asked, looking at Orihime being very impressed with the older teen.

"Oh that was just a lot of practice I did in the last several months, nothing special."

"Can you teach me that?"

"Hmmm I don't know... it's mostly a technique I can only do but we'll think of something."

"Yay I can't wait!"

Issei keeps boosting until he couldn't no more but he reached the point where it was just enough as a group of lesser hollows were charging right at him but this time Issei was ready.

"Take this DRAGON SHOT!" Unleashing a more powerful beam than before Issei fires it and destroys the group of weaker hollows with a single shot.

"OH YEAH! Who's awesome? Who's awesome?" Issei celebrates his victory with a little dance but suddenly from above a dragonic looking hollow was about to take a bite out of Issei until a large barrage of quincy hits the dragonic hollow destroying it. Issei needles to say almost wets himself.

"Hey, don't get too confident." says Uryu as everyone was finishing off of what's left of the hollow swarm.

Killing the last hollow with his arrow Uryu ends the battle as the garganta the portal to hueco mundo closes.

"So is it over?" Issei asks

"Yes for now." Uryu said as he puts away his Heilig Bogen. "It's pretty rare for a bunch of hollows to come out at once like that."

"Hmm...maybe something got their attention."

"Probably...but at least they're taken care of."

"Alright then let's go to this Urahara shop place and find Rias."

"Right then, just follow me I'll show you the way."

-In front of Urahara Shop-

"Ahhh….is this really the place?" Issei asked, looking at the shack in front of them.

"Yup! This is Mr. Urahara's shop" says Orihime.

"It looks like an old rundown warehouse to me" Koneko said in her monotone voice.

"Trust me, this is the place." Uryu then approaches the slide door until someone opens it from the inside, it was Rias.

"Hi everyone! Oh and I see you met my new friends" says Rias as she waves at Orihime, Chad and Uryu.

"Rias! You're ok!" Issei, being overjoyed to see his lovely president in one piece, runs over and was about to give Rias a big hug until Koneko intervened by jumping upward and stomps Issei on his back, making him crash on the ground.

"That must hurt."

"Pervo."

"Now, now Koneko don't be stingy. I'm willing to give everyone a hug, especially since I left so suddenly. You all must miss me."

"I….do….Rias" Issei uttered, remaining face down on the ground until Koneko removed her foot, allowing him to get back on his feet.

"So president, what brought you all the way here?" Kiba asks as he walks towards Rias.

Before she would answer, Rias takes a deep breath knowing now is the time to tell the rest of her peerage what's been going on recently.

"Well guys it's bit of a long story."

-In Urahara's Storage Closet-

In the backroom of Kisuke's storage space, a box is constantly shaking and moving around coming closer and closer to the edge of the shelf and once it reached over said shelf, the box tips over and falls to the floor, breaking it open.

"AH! Finally I'm out of that stupid storage box!" Coming out of the box was a cheap looking small lion plush doll with a mod soul inside of it. The mod lion plush doll was none other than Kon, having been Kisuke's guinea pig for his mad experiments for the last 2 years. Last thing he remembers before getting to be Kisuke's lab rat was after "saving" Karakura Town as the masked hero Karakura-Raizer and his team of Ichigo's classmates and that Don Kanonji guy.

"Now it's time to get the hell out of this mad house!" Kon begins to silently move from one box to another hiding behind them and keeping himself hidden from any potential surveillance that might be inside the storage room.

Before he makes his next move, Kon looks around to make sure he was in the clear. So far so good as the plush doll makes a dash through the main hallway practically passing Kisuke's room but the man was too busy working on his project to notice Kon leaving. The plush doll kept running and running as far as his little legs would carry him and as he was about to head towards the front entrance he stops when he sees Akeno and Rias. At first, he was mesmerized by their beauty but he quickly snaps out of it realizing that he's wasting time. He looks around and spots an open window. Knowing that it's either make or break time, Kon dashes over to the window and easily climbs up thanks to a table being next to it.

"Almost there, just a bit more" Kon whispered as climbs to the opening of the window.

As he reaches the edge of the window and makes the jump, Kon lands neatly on his feet and without hesitation makes a break for it back to Ichigo's place.

"FREEDOM!" Kon shouted as the stuffed mod soul runs back to the Kurosaki. Sadly, his freedom cry did not go unnoticed as Koneko heard Kon. She looks at him but remains where she was since Rias was still talking.

"Ah...finally I'm out of that nut job place, now to head back to Ichigo's place and hopefully Rukia will be waiting for me, ready to snuggle me nice and tight!" As he continues his way back to Ichigo's, the mod plush doll can't help but fantasize about being hugged by Rukia. Soon he would realize that in the last two years a lot has changed.

-Back at Urahara Shop with one long story later-

"And that's about it and what's been going on up till now" Rias finished, resting against the wall of the shop.

"Wait, so let me get this straight. You're being forced to marry to some jerk that you don't even like" said Issei as he gets angry that some a-hole is getting tieing-the-knot with Rias.

"Yes."

"So, in your desire to be alone, you accidently ended up in Karakura Town and were almost eaten by a powerful hollow." says Kiba.

"Correct."

"But you got saved by this Urahara person and he told you about this Ichigo guy who could help you out" Koneko said, having heard everything Rias said but still thinking of that little plush doll that ran off.

"Once again, yes."

"But President, I do have a question."

"Ask away Kiba."

"How can this Ichigo help exactly? I mean, you still have us."

"That's true but Riser is a high ranking devil, and you guys are not ready for him. Besides, I have a plan that can get me out of this whole arranged marriage nonsense but I'm going to need not just you guys but also Ichigo. Trust me when I say he has what it takes, even though as of right now, he doesn't have his powers."

"I've been meaning to say something that's been on my mind for a while." This time it was Uryu that begins to speak with Rias while Orihime and Chad remain silent.

"Yes, Uryu?"

"You're right about Ichigo not having his soul reaper powers, and it's good to know there is a way to restore it back… but with all of that said, in the last few weeks I began to sense something in him. Something...spiritual." When Uryu said that, it quickly got the attention of Rias, her peerage and especially Orihime and Chad.

"Do you mean his spiritual power is returning?" Rias looking at Uryu very sternly.

"Possibly, but I can't say for sure. In the last few weeks, I could feel his spiritual force but very little... like it's growing back, but not even close to the same amount he had before he lost them."

"You're correct, Mr. Ishida." Everybody looks back to see Kisuke walking out having been taking a small break from his restoration project for Ichigo having heard the commotion outside his shop.

"Oh I see some more new faces. Hello, Kisuke Urahara at your service."

Rias's peerage quickly introduce themselves to Kisuke. "Uh hey thanks for saving Rias." says Issei.

"Not a problem! So you're the great Issei I've heard so much about. Your president told me a lot about you."

"Really?!"

"Why yes, she told me that you're quite the perverted teen and that you want to become the harem king" says Kisuke in his usual cheerful demeanor.

"Uh...yeah...that's me….uh what are you doing?" Issei then notices Urahara examining his left arm.

"Oh sorry, force of habit. Rias also told me about your unique power. Possessing a dragon is rather impressive."

"Y-yeah...you're not going to experiment on me are you?"

"Oh I wouldn't worry too much, but back to the topic at hand."

"Like Mr. Ishida said, Ichigo's spiritual power is returning but is still very weak and miniscule at the present time, but in a few days that will likely change" Kisuke explained with a small smirk.

"Now I take it you guys need a place to crash for the night." Once Kisuke mentions it, everyone starts noticing that it's getting dark; with so much fighting, meeting new friends and talking who can blame them when time can fly so fast.

"I would offer, but right now I kinda need the extra rooms for a few important things, but I can at least lend one to one of you."

"Oh...I see only one, so who's going to take it?" Asia becoming worried that only one might get the room while the rest might have to spend the night sleeping in a park bench.

"You can spend the night in my place if you want." Asia looks over to Orihime as the bright orange-haired teen offers her place for Rias's peerage to rest and recuperate.

"You mean that?" Asia asks with a hopeful look in her eyes.

"Of course, if you guys are Rias's friends then you are mine too."

"Wow, thank you so much! I mean, are you sure about this? Surely you need to talk with your parents about this."

"Oh don't worry I live by myself in the apartment, but I'm sure there's plenty of room for you guys. Plus I do have a few extra futons."

"I see well thank you again, you're too generous." says Akeno as she and Koneko walk over to Orihime.

"No problem at all!"

"I think you girls can go with Orihime, I'll take up the last room." Kiba begins to walk towards the shop.

"Alright then, let's go!" says Orihime as Asia, Koneko and Akeno follow her while Chad went back to his place as well as Uryu.

Now the only one without a place to stay was Issei but he had other things on his mind, most of it is perverted as usual. "Sweet sexy boobie heaven here I come."

"Hold it there, Mr. Hyoudou." Before Issei could join Orihime's offer, he was stopped by Urahara's cane catching his right foot.

"Hey! What gives?! I'm gonna go to boobie heaven, plus there's no room for me in your shop anyway."

"Well Issei... I'm heading to another place to spend the night" says Rias with a sly look on her face.

"Wait, what?"

"Don't worry about a thing, you can have my room. Now then I'll see you tomorrow Issei, bye bye." Rias says her farewells before teleporting away.

"Rias! Wait!"

"Actually, I'm going to need you for something Issei" Kisuke said.

"For what exactly?"

"I want to take a better look at your left arm, something tells me there's more to your sacred gear than meets the eye."

"B-but my boobie heaven... and Rias" Issei gets back on his feet and was about to join Orihime's group once again only for Kisuke to bind him with a quick kido spell.

"Sorry but we all must make sacrifices for the greater good of science."

"W-wait… what about Ichigo's restoration thingy?" Issei comically tries to break free but thanks to Kisuke's quick thinking and his binding kido, his escape is very unlikely.

"Oh I wouldn't worry yourself over that, not to mention I'm great at multi-tasking" Kisuke says in a sing song voice.

-Kurosaki Household-

Once Ichigo got back home from Urahara's shop he had another ambush attack from Isshin only for Ichigo to simply move out of the way and give his father an uppercut for his trouble. Feeling too tired thanks to school and the whole fiasco with Rias, not to mention the possibility of regaining his powers, Ichigo can't help but feel exhausted and decides to take a nap on the couch.

Eventually, the smell of Yuzu's cooking woke Ichigo. Realizing what time it was, he looks at the clock and it was already 7pm. He quickly got to his feet and went straight towards his room and when he opens the door, the boy couldn't believe what he was looking at.

"Oh, good evening Ichigo." Rias greeted him, sitting in his chair while reading one of his mangas from his small collection and wearing one of his t-shirts.

"Rias… what are you doing in my house? Better yet, why are you in my room?"

"Well I did say I needed a place to crash" Rias replies and gives Ichigo a little wink.

"But why here? You could have gone with Orihi-"

"Ichigo dinner is ready!" shouts Yuzu as she walks towards his room and to her shock sees both Ichigo and a girl she's never seen before wearing her brother's shirt.

"Ah…."

"Hi I'm Rias! You must be Ichigo's sister."

"Ah… yes… I am… I'll just leave you two alone now!" Blushing brightly like a cherry, Yuzu quickly leaves the room.

"Wait Yuzu, it's not what it looks like!" By this point, Yuzu already went back downstairs and apparently told their zany father that there's a girl in Ichigo's room and he could be heard praising from God to Buddha that his son has finally becoming a true man.

"Oh...great." Ichigo slaps his hand against his face knowing that tonight his father will never live it down. While Rias just sits on his chair watching the whole thing, she does nothing but let out a small giggle. _"He's one interesting strawberry."_

 **To be continued!**

 **(A/N: And with that this episode comes to a close and soon we'll get to see the main bad guy of this season go face to face with our main orange head hero. Also I've been contemplating about making IchigoXRias and IsseiXAsia a thing. I think it would make things interesting, granted it won't be a as blunt as: (Ichigo: Oh Rias I can't explain it but I'm in love with you for some reason!? Rias: Oh wow I totally feel the same way let's get married!) No not like that best way I would do this is get them to spend time with each other and getting to know each other. Plus I know Rias knew of Ichigo thanks to Urahara but for now I'll have them have some quality time. Plus I always though IsseiXAsia would be a better couple especially how much did for her in the first season and when he defended her from Xenovia. But for now we will see how things play out for our heroes. Also I'd like to thank the wii game Bleach Shattered Blade soundtrack since it helped me make this chapter especially the hollow swarm battle. Last thing, let me know what you guys think of the whole couple thing if you're in to it or not. Well hope you guys enjoyed the chapter please do leave a review they really help a lot knowing that you guys really like this story and with all of that said have a good night and til next time :)...oh and Kon is back and I do have some plans for him it's all in the matter if they could be fitted in the story or at least have his adventures as omakes. But for now we'll see what else could happen.) ;)**


	4. 2 Day Holiday in Karakura Town!

**(A/N: Here it is episode 4 and apologies for taking as long as it did to get this chapter done. I had a LOT of bumps in the road with one being my new Dell laptop dying on me after only lasting three months. Apparently it was Windows 10 that killed the hard drive but right now as I post this chapter my laptop is being repaired and probably would be back in a week or two. Thank you warranty. But the bad news is that I'm now stuck with an old Vaio laptop that had seen better days. Slow as hell but I'll take what I can get at this point. But this whole thing including my ipod having its own problem with the audio jack was bringing me down but I know that you guys were waiting for this chapter so here it is. As for the episode itself well for one thing Riser will show but in the next episode, in this one Rias and the rest are settling in Karakura. Me and my editor Ashton Mesmer kept going for you guys and I hope you guys enjoy it.)**

It was dinner time as Rias joins the Kurosaki family at the dining table after she puts her old uniform back on and later introduces herself to the Kurosaki clan.

"It's really nice to meet you all, my name is Rias Gremory."

"No, no Miss Gremory the pleasure is all ours. It's nice that my boy finally finds a nice girl." Ishin says with a smirk which Ichigo growls knowing that tonight will not be easy for him.

Yuzu was still shocked to find Rias in Ichigo's room of all places while Karin remains indifferent but she does have a few things on her mind.

"Wow Ichigo, you really know how to pick'em" says Karin with Ichigo's response being a "Hmph."

Now sitting right next to Ichigo, Rias watches Yuzu and Karin sit on the opposite side of them along with their father Isshin sitting in the head seat. The man grins from ear to ear and Ichigo feels the anxiety build as he prepares for his goofball father to say something stupid or embarrassing. Then the man spoke.

"So Rias, what brings here to our small little town? More importantly how did my no-good delinquent son ever win you over?" Isshin asks wanting to know the crimson beauty.

Ichigo's eyebrow twitches by Isshin's comment as he resist the urge to jump him and engage in another pointless fight. Luckily, he holds himself back because he knows that Isshin just wants to bring the rage out of him… and it's working.

"Oh Mr. Kurosaki, Ichigo is no delinquent. In fact, he saved my life this morning from a bunch of thugs."

"Really? Well at least my boy is good for something after all and please Rias call me Isshin or better yet you can call me papa!"

"Shut it Dad! Rias is not my girlfriend, we're just friends." exclaimed Ichigo with a little red color on his cheeks.

"I never did say she was your girlfriend" Isshin says with a devious smirk.

Realizing what he said Ichigo quietly grunts as he continues to eat his dinner while feeling a bit embarrassed. "Just shut it already will you!"

"Oh Ichigo, there's no need to be embarrassed. I guess after this I might have to explain to you about the ways of the world!"

"Like hell I'm going to listen to your crazy ideas!"

"So Rias, where you from exactly?" asked Karin wanting to know more of Ichigo's supposed 'friend'

"I'm actually from out of town. Sadly, I ran away from home due to some issues with my own family to the point I just wanted to get away from it all. Now I'm stuck in the unhappy predicament of having no place to go" Rias explains, putting on a little sobbing act which Ichigo and Karin were not buying while Yuzu was sympathetic towards Rias...but Isshin on the other hand.

The looney single parent rushes over to Rias and grabs both her hands with manly anime tears streaming down his face. "Oh you poor girl! You're welcome to live here at the Kurosaki house as long as you like! Heck, you can be the fourth daughter of the Kurosaki clan!"

"Really? You mean it? Papa!" Rias playing along with Isshin's drama act as she looks up to him with sparkling eyes of hope with the 'Papa' line causing Ichigo to spew his drink right at Karin's face.

As this drama show goes on, Ichigo just looks on with his mouth ajar unable to believe what he's witnessing and having a strong case of deja vu. Karin, after wiping off the spewed drink from her face, continues eating, not paying any attention to the drama act before her. Yuzu is still a bit stunned about the fact that the girl she found in Ichigo's room would now be living with them, but she smiled nonetheless.

Then a thought came to Rias. "Wait, if I'm the fourth daughter, then who's the third?" Rias looks around and sees Yuzu and Karin being the only two girls in the house.

"Ah… yeah she's away doing stuff." Ichigo says having a flashback of Rukia pretty much pulling the same stunt as Rias did.

After the dramatic performance starring Isshin and Rias that was dinner and after helping Yuzu with the dishes, Rias walks over to the living room and sees the large memorial portrait of Ichigo's mother, Masaki. She could see where Ichigo got his hair from and can't help but admire her beauty. Hearing Ichigo approach, she looks over to him.

"Your mother looks beautiful in that portrait."

"Thanks, but I wish Dad could just switch it with a smaller and more normal frame or just a picture would do."

Rias looks at the portrait again while placing her thumb and index finger under her chin. "Hmmm...I think I like this better."

Ichigo looking at Rias with a cocked eyebrow. "Why?"

"I think it looks very nice not to mention the flowers around her really brings out her beauty, especially her smile. At least that's just my opinion."

Ichigo then looks back at the portrait and he can see what she means; the flowers do make a difference in this way, he could hardly believe he didn't notice it before. "I suppose you have a point, but why does it have to be taking up a majority of the wall? I'm all for remembrance but this seems overdone."

"Perhaps that's the way your father wants it. Personally, I think it's sweet your family would keep this up for so long, it shows how much you all truly loved her and how much you cherish her memory."

"Yeah….I guess you're right there." It's been no secret that after Masaki died things were at its lowest in the Kurosaki household and Isshin did try to make things better with the portrait and it did work for the first two to three weeks until Ichigo felt it was unnecessary until after what Rias told him.

After that it was silence for a few minutes as both continue looking at the portrait with Ichigo looking at it with a newfound appreciation.

"Your father is very kind to let me stay here." Rias breaking the silence.

"Well my dad's a sap, he'll buy just about anything without much effort." Well that's more or less true considering his usual act around his son, but after what happened a few years back Ichigo felt like he was the real sap after finding out his father was once a captain-class soul reaper and it made him more of a sap when Isshin knew what was going on at the time especially after the talk they had after he lost his powers.

"Oh come now Ichigo, I think your father is a very nice man, a little strange but very sweet."

"Yeah well, now that you're staying here I take it you're going to sleep in the vacant room next to mine, right? Yuzu is already making your bed and all."

"Well yes I could sleep there... but I'm not very fond of sleeping alone." Rias putting on a scared little girl act which Ichigo didn't buy for a second.

"You're a big girl Rias, I think you can sleep just fine" Ichigo says as he walks up the stairs heading to his room. Unknown to Ichigo, from behind Rias lets out a devious smirk as she watches him walking up the stairs and straight toward his room.

She was about to follow him until Karin popped up with a question for her. "You like my brother don't you?"

Rias quickly stops and turns around to find Karin behind her with her usual unimpressed look and her arms crossed.

"Hm...maybe, why do you ask?" Rias asked as she can't help but be reminded of Koneko when she sees Karin. Makes her wonder if they could be good friends in the future.

"Just curious since most girls wouldn't just be with him on the drop of a hat aside from Tatsuki and that Orihime girl."

"I see, well I just find him interesting is all."

"Yeah he's kinda cool, I guess."

Rias then looks at Karin as she walks by her but she stops half way now being right next to her.

"If you ask me I'd say he's worth the trouble. Ichigo may have his guard up all the time, making him look distant, but when he does bring it down, he's a very caring person" Karin says as she goes walking up the stairs as well. "If he really does get a girlfriend, he could stand to loosen up for once."

Rias would watch Karin walking up the stairs until she was out of sight and the crimson-haired can't help but have a small mischievous smile once again. "I see, maybe I can help him with that."

"Hey Rias, I put your cloths in the laundry" says Yuzu as she walks out of the laundry room.

"Why thank you Yuzu, you're really handy around the house."

"Oh it's nothing, really. This is sorta my thing" Yuzu replies as the buzzer sounds off in the laundry prompting the girl to go back to attend the cloths.

"Hmm...I better send my pieces a message." Rias then pulls out her cellphone and texted to her peerage to take a small vacation in the next few days.

"They could use some time off anyway, especially after giving them the slip like I did" Rias says as she finishes texting the message and sends it to her peerage.

"Now with that out of the way, time to call it a night. Perhaps I'll have a little fun with my strawberry first."

-Back at Urahara Shop-

After being dragged into the shop against his will and stripped down to his boxer shorts, Issei has been subjected to scans, examinations, and many pokes and prods by none other than Kisuke who was still not done with the poor kid.

"Come on man, how many tests are you going to do?"

"Don't worry we're almost done."

"You said that like five times already!"

"Because we're still in progress, not to mention these kinds of things take time to accomplish."

Issei simply groans as Urahara keeps examining the young teenager.

"Can I ask what the point is to all of this?"

"I'm simply doing a favor for your president."

"Rias? Wait, she asked you to do this?!"

"Yup! Well not entirely, mind you. Just that I need to have complete knowledge of what I'm working on."

"What exactly did she ask you to do then?"

"Simple, she asked me to make you stronger."

"Really?"

"Yes, just because Rias asked Ichigo to help her doesn't mean she's given up on you."

"Wow, thank you lady president! I knew you would never forsake me!" Issei being emotional as he balled his hand up into a fist while anime tears poured out of his eyes.

"Ouch! Hey!" Issei returned to normal when he felt a sharp pain in his left arm.

"Sorry, needed a sample" Kisuke says as he takes a small amount of blood from Issei's left arm with a syringe.

"Yeah, so who's this Ichigo guy anyway? You, Rias, and Asia's new friends all act like he's a big deal around here."

"Well that's because he is. Ichigo has done much for both Karakura Town and the Soul Society."

"Soul Society?"

"Think of it as an afterlife in general, like a different place besides heaven and hell."

"Oh… okay I guess."

"Worry not though! Tomorrow you might get the chance to meet the man himself and then you can ask him all the questions your dirty little mind can muster."

"Hey! My mind isn't that dirty!"

"Sure it isn't, and I have a goose that lays golden eggs" Kisuke says with a grin. "I won't fault you for it since most young men at your age tend to go into the sweeter things in life if you catch my drift."

"Uh...yeah kinda."

Kisuke then leaves Issei for a bit as the man goes to one of his large computers and begins to press a few buttons here and there while the machine scans his data on Issei in addition to the young man's sample with the large computer making several sounds. Issei simply watches from the examination table.

A few minutes later... "Ding!" The computer then prints out several sheets of paper.

"Ah here we go." Once all the sheets were printed out, Kisuke picks them up and begins to read them very intently.

"Hmm…"

"Well? What does it say?"

Kisuke then looks at Issei with a very serious look on his face and tells him what the computer printed out. "Issei...you are pregnant."

"WHAT!" What the hell, man?!" Issei exclaims as he almost falls off from the examination table.

The serious tension quickly turns to a comedic moment as Kisuke burst out laughing, loving the reaction that Issei gave."Ha, no no just kidding, you're fine."

"Seriously?!" Issei replies, becoming very annoyed by Kisuke's antics.

"It's always good to have a sense of humor, you know." Kisuke then continues to look at the results and Issei's data.

"Yeah I bet." Issei replied, sitting on the edge of the table.

After looking over all that the computer worked out, Kisuke looks over to Issei now acting serious this time. "In all seriousness, you do show a lot of potential. You just need a good training regimen to get you at your top form."

"Ok, so what does that mean?"

"It means I'll be training you, granted you'd be a little different than when I trained Ichigo, but thanks to the data I gathered I feel we can make it work. For now though, just get some rest and prepare for the next few days. I'll working you down to the bone."

"*Gulp* C-Can't wait..."

"Then again I do have to work on Ichigo's spiritual restoration and Yoruichi hasn't come back yet, but don't worry too much. Just follow my instructions and who knows you might be top tier by the time we're done."

"Really?! Awesome! Don't worry Rias I'll be the strongest pawn ever!" Issei then jumps from the examination table and heads towards his room, passing by the former twelve squad captain. As he dashes down the hallway, he accidently bumps into Kiba as the young man was walking out of the bath with just a towel around his waist. h

"Issei, you shouldn't run in the hall!"

"No time! I got to get ready for tomorrow!" Issei then dashes towards his room and slams the door shut as he crashes for the night leaving Kiba confused.

"What was that all about?" he wonders. When Kiba goes to pick up his cloths, his phone starts to vibrate. He checks it and it was a message from Rias. The blonde swordsman quickly opens the message and reads it.

"Hey guy, just to let you know that the next 2 days will be your vacation. Think of it as an apology for leaving you guys alone like that."

Much love,

Rias

"Don't worry lady president but thanks for the time off." says Kiba as he texts back to let her know that he got the message.

-Orihime's Apartment-

At Orihime's place it's like a party as the girls were having a good time with Orihime as their hostess. They even tried out her strange, yet bizarrely delicious food mixes such as peanut butter and banana cream pie or her spaghetti with chocolate sauce and skittles. As Akeno says, don't knock it 'til you try it.

"Wow Orihime, who would have thought that mixing vanilla ice cream with soy sauce would taste so good" Asia says as she's been learning new ways of cooking thanks to Orihime while Koneko slowly becomes a fan of her cooking.

"I want more!" Koneko says as she wolfs down on the soy sauce covered ice cream.

"Yes this is simply divine!" Akeno said enjoying the chocolate covered pasta.

"It's so good!" The three girls said in union.

"I'm glad you guys like them so much. My friend Tatsuki would normally turn down my cooking but it's good to know that there are others that like it. Don't worry there's plenty more where that came from."

"Yay!" exclaimed Asia and Akeno happily while Koneko remained in her usual voice. Then Akeno's phone vibrated closely followed by Asia's and Koneko's. The raven-haired girl quietly reads it and smiles as she looks over to Asia and Koneko.

"Well, we're going to be on vacation for a little while."

-Next Day, Ichigo's bedroom-

It was dark in Ichigo's room as the former substitute soul reaper would hear his alarm routinely sound off and, like before, slams his fist on the alarm. One of these days he's liable to break it; he's already smashed like five alarm clocks already. Once he shuts off the first alarm, Ichigo opens one of his eyes and sees the clock saying 6 a.m. "The hell?"

Ichigo was certain that he had the alarm placed for 7am not 6. Thinking that it's probably a glitch, Ichigo moves over to the other side of his bed. Strangely enough he feels something next to him when his hand lands on what feels like a shapely form. He feels something soft on his hand. "What the heck?" Ichigo continues to move his hand and then he gets a scent that's strangely familiar to him and then.

"Mmm..."

That quickly woke him up as Ichigo literally jumps from the bed, turn on the lights and pulls the sheets off his bed and he finds none other than Rias who once again is wearing one of his t-shirts, this time one that was a little too big for her frame not to mention he quickly realized that the soft squishy thing he felt was her chest! To his horror, he realized that she must not be wearing a bra underneath. He could see her pink panties with small red and blue hearts on them which caused the young man to blush like a cherry as he covers his eyes and looks away. If Ichigo were to freak out it would probably wake everyone in the house not to mention the rest of the neighborhood.

"Uh...Rias" Ichigo calls to the girl.

"Hmm? Ichigo it's too early….five more minutes." Rias still remains sleeping but she does answer to Ichigo as she slowly wakes and looks at him with just one eye open.

"Rias...why are you in my bed?"

"Yawwwwn! Oh Ichigo, didn't I say that I don't like to sleep alone." Rias rubs out the sleep from her eyes as she sits on his bed cross-legged.

"Uh huh, right, says a 18 year old devil girl."

Rias simply giggles at his response sticking out her tongue a little.

"Sigh...anyway, since I'm up, I guess I can start the day early." Ichigo then heads over to his closet and pulls out his running jacket, pants and shoes.

"Going for a jog?"

"Yeah, Kisuke did say I better get my stamina up so my body can handle my powers when they come back."

"That's true; wish I could join you but, you know, I don't have all of my cloths with me at the moment."

"It's alright, you can go back to sleep if you want."

"Mmm… alright then. Maybe next time I'll join you."

"Sure I'd be fine with that." Ichigo putting on his running gear, he slowly opens the door and on his way out shuts off the lights to his room letting Rias sleep for another hour.

Ichigo quietly leaves the house and begins his morning jog. As he steadily runs down the sidewalk, the former substitute soul reaper would remember his past battles from his first fight to his rematch with Renji and his battles with Kenpachi and Byakuya. Then his mind would wander to his battles with the Arrancars but mostly with Grimmjow and Ulquiorra; and his last fight against Aizen.

They were all the battles that could have ended his life, but even with all the odds pitted against him, somehow someway he manages to come out on top, not without getting a little roughed up of course.

With his powers returning to him tomorrow, he wonders what would wait for him. Ichigo knows that he's going up against this Riser guy thanks to him agreeing to help Rias. Maybe when he comes back home he could ask Rias about Riser's power. Better to know what he's up against than going into the fight blind.

Reaching an intersection, Ichigo stops as the cars pass by him. He waits for the light to go green and when it does he looks both ways and continues jogging. As he was about to turn a corner, the boy bumps right into another young man appearing to be a few years younger than him.

Turns out it was Issei. The teen was jogging as well when he woke up early this morning too and, thanks to Urahara, he got some running clothes from the man's storage room that fit him just fine. Now on his butt after practically bumping into Ichigo, Issei looks up and sees Ichigo with his usual scary look on his face.

" _Holy crap this guy looks like he could kick my ass!"_

"Oh sorry about that, I didn't see you there." Ichigo reaches his helping hand to the brown haired teen before him.

Now he's surprised; instead of getting his ass kicked this guy just offers his hand to help him back on his feet. Issei takes his offer and quickly returns to his feet with Ichigo's aid.

"It's ok, it's kinda my fault for not looking." Issei replies, rubbing the back of his head embarrassingly.

"Eh it was an accident anyway, no hard feelings" Ichigo says as Issei gets a good look at Ichigo before it hits him.

"Uh… by any chance are you Ichigo Kurosaki?" Issei asks.

"Depends on who's asking."

"I'm Issei Hyoudou and Rias's pawn."

"Oh I see, so you're part of her peerage?"

"Yeah and Rias already told us about you and I would like to say thanks for helping our president."

"Eh it's what I do."

"So if it's ok, do you mind if I join you?"

"Sure, why not."

The two then continue their jog while talking to each other, eventually reaching Karakura Park.

-Kurosaki Residents-

Meanwhile back at Ichigo's place, the plush doll, Kon, finally made it back after taking a wrong turn and ended up lost.

"Finally, I'm back." Seeing the door open, Kon quickly hides in the bushes as Yuzu, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes, grabs the morning paper. Quickly seeing an opportunity, Kon silently and quickly passes by Yuzu while the girl wasn't looking.

Now inside the house, Kon looks around and makes sure it's clear, but when Yuzu is comes back in, the plush doll swiftly hides under the sofa. Once the coast is clear and seeing no one aside from Yuzu who begins to cook breakfast, Kon climbs up the staircase until he reaches the second floor. He spots the door to Ichigo's room slightly open.

Spotting yet another opportunity, the plush goes right into Ichigo's room. Once inside, it was dark save for the sun's rays piercing through the window blinds.

He looks around and even with the small rays helping him, Kon can at least get a good look; that's when he saw what he thought was Ichigo in the bed.

Before attempting to confront Ichigo, Kon opens the closet, expecting to see his beloved Rukia sleeping inside, but all that he finds is emptiness apart from Ichigo's clothes and other stuff.

"Rukia… she's not hear?... Damn it!" In his dismay and frustration, Kon then flies onto Ichigo's bed and lands right on top of the form sleeping under the covers.

"Damn it, Ichigo! I leave you alone for two years and you lose Rukia?! Where is she? Where is my darling Rukia?!"

"Rukia?"

"Eh?" Hearing a girl's voice instead of Ichigo, Kon stops pounding on the girl as Rias slowly gets up and lets the sheets fall from her form. Rias then stretches out and pulls the window blind's string, raising them and letting the sun shine through; when it did, Kon was completely shocked and mesmerized by her beauty at the same time.

"Sorry but there's no Rukia here. My name is Rias Gremory. What's your name, little guy?"

Snapping himself out of it, Kon puts on his "cool" act, hoping to impress her.

"Hmph… well if you really wanna know, my name is Kon and I'm Ichigo's trainer, his master if you will" says the plush lion as he crosses his little arms.

"Oh my, that sounds so interesting, you must be really good" Rias says as she could see right through his charade but plays along regardless. She is intrigued with the plush doll especially because it can talk and walk around with no use of magic.

"Yup, heck I practically taught him everything he knows including the all powerful kung-fu grip."

"My, aren't you just something."

"Well of course but I'm more than just something, I'm the great and mighty Kon!"

"Wow, I'm so honored to be in your presence." Rias keeps up the act until she looks over and sees the clock reading 6:55am.

"Hmm… Ichigo hasn't come back yet."

-Karakura Park-

Back in the park, after jogging for a while, both Ichigo and Issei take a break on a bench while Ichigo tells the teen his stories about his time as a soul reaper while Ichigo had his own questions in mind.

"Wow, seriously, there's guys like that in this… Huco Mando place?"

"That's Hueco Mundo and yeah I'm being straight. I guess you guys have your own problems with these stray devils."

"Yeah… they're kinda like those hollow monsters, but those looked a lot tamer compared to the strays."

"Really? You don't say."

"Yeah totally" Issei replies as Ichigo pauses for a minute and then looks over to Issei.

"Well at least we got one thing in common."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"A couple of girls came into our lives and changed our worlds" says Ichigo as he remembers how he met Rukia and what happened on that night.

"Hm… yeah I guess you're right about that."

Then Ichigo's wrist watch started to buzz. He looks over and realized that it's 6:58am.

"Crap I better head back, it was nice meeting you. I'll probably see you later" says the orange-haired teen as he gets up and begins his jog back home.

"Yeah, it's been cool talking to you. Later!" Issei waves goodbye as the older teen jogs off back home.

"He's actually a pretty cool guy." Then Issei's phone started to ring and it's his parents.

"Oh crap! That's right, I never went back home! My parents are gonna kill me!" Issei says to himself as he panics rather than just hang up since they would call again immediately.

Rather than prolong the inevitable, he sucks it up and answers the call. "Hello."

"Son, we are so proud of you!" came the voice of his Issei's father.

"W-What?"

"How come you didn't tell us that you got accepted into the prestigious Urahara Academy."

"Again, what?"

"You don't have to play dumb son, Mr. Urahara explained everything. Who knew that our good-for-nothing, perverted son would be able to enter such a prestigious and popular school?"

"Hey!"

"In any case, we called to say we're proud of you and your mother wishes you good luck." With that, Issei's dad hangs up and Issei just stands there with his mouth ajar while he receives yet another call.

"Yeah?" he answered.

"So did your parents like my present?"

"What the hell did you do?!" Issei exclaims.

"Oh nothing special, I just sent them, by overnight cat delivery, a special memory alteration device It's pretty much the same as we soul reapers use to clear and replace unneeded memories that normal people don't need. Only that in this case it made your folks think that you are in my school."

"That's just scary."

"Don't worry it won't cause any permanent brain damage or anything."

"That just makes me worry more."

"Well there's no need to. Anyway when you're done with your morning jog please do come back soon. I'll be having Tessai overlook your training."

"Ok, but what about you?"

"I'm going to be working on a few things, namely an Ichigo-related project."

"Ok then, I'll be back soon" replies Issei as he hangs up his phone and begins his way back to Urahara's shop, unknown to the brown-haired teen he's being watched from afar. Two cloaked female figures are hidden under the shades of the trees.

"No question, he's one of her pawns" says the blonde one as she looks through her special binoculars.

"Then let's return and report back. It's a good chance that she might be here too" says a tall, purple-haired woman.

"I'm sure that the house of Gremory will be pleased and especially… my brother."

 **To be continued!**

 **(A/N: And that's a wrap, so next time we will have Riser making an appearance and Ichigo will have his powers back as well. Plus a little something before calling it a night. Bleach has ended several weeks back and I just want to say I'm not mad with the ending I'm just more or less ok with what we got all things considered with what's going on with Kubo and Shonen Jump at the time. Granted Kubo left out a lot of stuff that I won't mention here because it would be as long as the chapter itself if not longer. Me and several fans of the series have always felt that Bleach should have ended with Aizen. But instead Kubo wanted to continue and not everybody was ok with that. I myself kept going for the sake of closure and yeah the fullbringer arc was a chore to go through even when some of the characters where interesting, heck I thought Tsukishima was a great villain until everything just fell apart and a lot of people dropped the series because of it. As for the Thousand Year Blood War...I had mixed feelings with it on the positive side this was the war that should have been when the Shimigami vs. Espada battle happened. Granted there are some character deaths that I wasn't ok with and I won't say them for the sake of spoilers. On the negative side is mostly because of Yhwach. Arguably the most OP character in bleach and probably one of the top five in anime. The man can practically control reality through his power of "Using the future". But as of now Bleach is over and to be honest I wish the ending and the final fight could have been done better but now the party is over. It was fun while it lasted and I don't regret loving bleach yeah there were moments that made me question it and Kubo but at least I had fun with it. Anyway I've been rambling long enough NEXT TIME Riser shows up and Ichigo gets his mojo going again. So stay tuned! PS: If your new and like The Story? Follow/Favorite and leave a review we do read them and it helps a lot. Til Next Time!)**

 **(The Devil and The Reaper is written by Alpha Espada and edited by Ashton Mesmer. Please support the official release.)**


	5. A Phoenix Enters, Reaper's Resurrection

**(A/N:So...yeah it's been a looooooooong time since i updated this story but fear not this fanfic is still on just I had a lot more bumps in the road than I thought mainly my laptop dying on my again which was fantastic -_-. But for now I'll save the explanations at the end of the chapter. So for now sit down get the snacks and enjoy.)**

As Ichigo heads back home he quickly enters and rushes up to the second floor of his house, heading for the shower. He goes in and after 8 to 9 minutes he comes out with a towel thanks to Yuzu leaving it for him before he got in.

Rias was already dressed and having breakfast with Karin while Ishin was already at the clinic attending an early patient.

Ichigo goes to his room and saw Kon lying on the bed lifeless and sees his tiny candy sized orb on the desk. Instead of wondering where he's been all this time Ichigo thought he could talk with Kon later when he sees his clock read 7:25 am.

"Crap!" Ichigo then goes to his closet and takes out his school uniform and drops his towel only to quickly get his undershorts on and soon the rest of his cloths.

In the dining room, Rias was eating her sunny side-up eggs with butter toast on the side while having a conversation with Karin.

"So you're from Europe?" asked Karin.

"Yes actually, but I moved to Japan since I always wanted to come here." Rias answers as she takes a bite out of her buttered toast.

"Heck I'd like to go to Europe. Japan is not all that great, granted we have Tokyo but that place is too crowded for my taste" says Karin as she continues to eat her breakfast.

"I see, you know Karin I do have a friend that I would like to introduce you to. I do think you two would really hit it off." As Rias looks at Karin she can't help but be reminded of Koneko. She should really introduce her seeing as how Koneko could use more friends aside from herself and her peerage.

"I'm not interested in boys right now" Karin says not very interested in what she thought was Rias offering to set her up on a date.

"Don't worry she's not a boy" Rias says as she finishes her breakfast and at the same time Ichigo comes down from the stairs already dressed and ready to go.

"Ichigo, no breakfast?" Yuzu asks as she finishes with the kitchen and begins to quickly have her own breakfast.

"Nah, toast is just fine with me." Instead of getting a full breakfast, Ichigo just grabs a slice of toast out of the toaster, slams some blueberry jam on it and takes it to go.

"You know Ichigo, it's important that you have your breakfast since it's the most important meal of the day" Rias says in a sing song tone as she takes her plate to the kitchen and quickly grabs her school bag as she walks next to Ichigo.

"I know, I know but toast is fine by me, really" says the oranged-haired teen as the two head out to school.

"Have a nice day you two!" Yuzu says as she waves goodbye to them with Rias waving back.

"Thank you!" Rias says with a smile.

"Yeah, later Yuzu." Ichigo raising his hand up to Yuzu as well.

As the two leave and walk towards Karakura High, Rias and Ichigo started chatting.

"You know Ichigo, I am really starting to like it here. It's a lot more interesting than back home that's for sure" says the crimson-haired princess already who has had a pleasant experience in Karakura so far.

"Well if you say so, even though there's not much to look at in Karakura besides the paranormal stuff; but you know I'm glad that you're enjoying yourself. Speaking of home, have you tried talking with your folks yet?" Ichigo looks over to Rias wondering if she had contacted them yet.

"No...not yet anyway." Rias looks to the side sheepishly.

"It has been a while Rias, they have to be worried sick" says Ichigo feeling that Rias should talk to her folks at some point.

"I know…." Then Rias felt a presence on her right but as she looks over she sees nothing.

"Something wrong?" Ichigo asked as he looks at the same direction as Rias.

After a few minutes of searching for the presence she couldn't find it anymore. Then she looks over to Ichigo with a smile. "No it's probably nothing."

Ichigo didn't exactly buy her answer but he didn't want to pressure her if it's not there anymore. No point going after it now then they would definitely be late.

"Alright then, and Rias...about last night." Ichigo stops walking as he looks over at Rias.

"You mean when I crashed into your bed?" says Rias seductively while giving him a wink.

"No no, I mean about the whole memorial for my mom" Ichigo says as he tries to hide his blush but to no avail.

"Yes?" Rias looks at Ichigo while holding her giggle, watching him hide his blush.

"Well I haven't told you the whole story actually...about what happened."

Her giggling quickly stops as Rias looks at Ichigo with a concerned look, quick to respond before he would say anything. "Ichigo, you don't have to tell me. Maybe I was out of line with my opinion since-"

"No, no Rias your opinion is fine, it actually helped me a little."

"Ok...so what is it exactly?"

"It's… nevermind I can tell you later. Come on we're going to be late anyway." Ichigo then keeps walking ahead.

"Fine... later it is then." Rias looks at Ichigo before she continues to walk catching up to him.

As they continue to walk away the same two hooded figures from before were following them until they sensed that Rias noticed them and quickly retreated. They found their target.

"Tsk...look at her walking to a new school and being with a boy she hardly knows. Hehe… someone is desperate."

"It really doesn't matter if she's with a boy or not. So long as she's here, my brother will be very pleased" says the hooded blonde girl.

"Mmmm… and I do like it when Master Riser is pleased" The cloaked woman with violet hair says as she licks her lips.

"Ok too much info! Let's go before anyone notices, or worse, we bump into any of her peerage."

"No problem." With a feeling of being watched, the violet haired woman looks up and spies a black cat staring down on them. The woman simply glares back but the cat didn't budge remaining still and staring right at them.

"Hey what's wrong?"

"Nothing, just a stupid cat" says the hooded woman as she walks away while the cats gives her a hiss as if it knew what she said and quickly leaves.

 **-Urahara Shop Training Grounds-**

Ever since this morning, Issei has been training non-stop using Urahara's training regiment. He did some of the necessary exercises and practiced his Dragon shots with his sacred gear. Afterwards, he had sparred with Kiba for a while until Kiba had to head out and see the rest of Karakura. Now the boy is currently sparring with Tessai while Asia sits on the sidelines cheering Issei on.

"Come on Issei, you can do it!"

"Damn this guy is no joke" says Issei, breathing heavily while wiping the sweat off his brow.

"Well what did you expect? I used to be a Captain of the Kido Corps back in my days in the Soul Society. If this was a real fight you'd be on the ground, knocked out."

"Y-yeah… good to know… but for Rias' sake I have to get stronger. Now come on!"

" **BOOST!** "

"Very well, here I come!" Tessai, in the blink of an eye, dashes towards Issei and winds up to deliver another punch to the teen. Issei quickly blocks his fist using his sacred gear. "Well, you're starting to catch on."

"Yeah it took a while and a few jabs but I'm starting to get the hang of this."

" **BOOST!** "

"Hmm… yes but let's see if you can handle this." Tessai backs away and fires a Kido spell at Issei with the teen barely dodging it in time.

" **BOOST!** "

"Alright I'm ready to go! Take this! Dragon SHOT!"

Tessai moves out of the way from the dragon shot blast and quickly flash steps towards Issei and just as he was about to deliver a powerful uppercut...

 **BZZZZZ! TIME!**

Tessai stops his attack mid-way when the training timer went off. "Hmm how time flies."

"Oh thank you timer!" Issei then slumps on the ground feeling the exhaustion catching up with him after training as long as he did.

"You did great Issei!" Asia hands the boy a towel.

"Thanks, Asia." Issei takes the towel and places it over his forehead.

"Yes… you've come a long way and have improved a great deal, but for now I must head back to the shop, and handle a few orders. For now, take a rest." Tessai then leaves the two alone in the training ground as he climbs up the ladder leading up to the shop to attend its daily necessities.

Now with the two of them alone, Issei just lies on the floor catching his breath while Asia hands him a water bottle.

"So Asia..how did it go last night with Orihime?"

"Oh it was great, we had such a wonderful time and Orihime is such a good cook. She's going to teach me some of her cooking techniques."

"Nice, that's good to hear. Kiba and I had some of Tessai's cooking, it wasn't much but it was good any-POW!" Before Issei could finish his sentence the teen was smashed in the face with a baseball.

"Oh no, Issei! Are you alright!?" Asia exclaims as she goes to Issei's side.

"D-Damn it, that hurts." Issei slowly gets up with his nose bleeding a little from that hit.

"Hey punk, break time is over! Now it's my turn to kick your sorry ass!" Coming out of the store and wielding his baseball bat and sporting a sleeveless blue shirt, edged with white and grey pants, was the red-haired member of Kisuke's crew: Jinta Hanakari.

"Damn it kid, I was in a middle of something!"

"Well tough shit, now you have me to deal with! So you got the power of a dragon, huh? You don't look all that great to me!"

"Oh yeah?! Wanna see what I can really do?!" Issei gets on his feet ready to fight Jinta as he summons his sacred gear.

"Come and get some!"

" **BOOST!"**

"Fine by me!" Jinta readies his bat while producing a baseball size orb of spiritual energy. Jinta then tosses the spirit ball in the air and when it went down the red-haired teen hits it with his baseball bat firing it at Issei which the brown-haired teen dodges and when he got close enough he delivers a punch with his sacred gear only for Jinta to block it with his spiritual energy covered bat.

"Hmph is that all you got? And Kisuke said that you had sort of potential."

"Heh you haven't seen anything yet!"

" **BOOST!"**

"Now take this Dragon Shot!" Pushing Jinta's bat away, Issei quickly fires his attack, connecting with Jinta and sending the teen back several feet.

"Hot hot hot… damn Kisuke wasn't kidding. Alright, now let's get real serious!" Jinta increases his spiritual power now getting serious for a change.

"Heh...alright let's go!" shouts Issei as he and Jinta begins their fight with Asia cheering him on from the sidelines.

 **-In the streets of Karakura-**

Since Orihime left for school, Koneko has been exploring Karakura for a while after she's been given some time off from Rias.

The white-haired girl would look around seeing all the sights that Karakura had to offer. So far there's not much to look at since most streets look rather the same to her.

Eventually she walks by the waterfront where she sees a bridge that connects to another city. It was a pretty site but she kept on moving as it can only hold her attention for so long.

As she walks through the shopping district, she takes a left and notices a black cat following her around.

At first she ignores it hoping that it would go away, but it kept following her. She tried to take a sharp left but the cat could keep up with the white-haired girl as she keeps taking sharp corners hoping to lose the black feline but to no avail.

Once they were alone in an empty street, Koneko turns around and looks at the cat.

"Quit following me, I don't have anything to give you" says the young white-haired girl feeling a little annoyed by the cat constantly following her.

"I'm not asking for anything" the black cat speaks with a charming male voice.

Koneko was a little surprised by the cat speaking even if she doesn't show it. "Wait...did you just-"

"Talk, why yes." the cat answers as it walks towards the young school girl and sits in front of her with his piercing yellow eyes looking up at her.

"You know normal cats don't talk" says Koneko plainly.

"Perhaps, but I'm no normal cat by any means. My name is Yoruichi" the cat says, introducing

itself.

"Mine's Koneko."

"Very nice to meet you."

"So what do you want?"

"Ah straight to the point, I like that. I'd simply like to chat with you is all."

"…"

"Don't worry, I'm friends with Kisuke. Well actually I live with him, so you can trust me."

Koneko gives Yoruichi a good long look, still suspicious of the black cat even if she is friends with that bucket hat guy; but seeing that there's nothing for her to lose, she feels she can go along with the feline. "Alright, what do you want?"

"Oh nothing special, just a friendly chat. Mostly about what you kids are getting into and to inform you that you're not the only ones visiting Karakura Town."

Koneko looks at Yoruichi.

"As of now they know that you're all here."

Koneko widen her eyes when she heard what Yoruichi said knowing who the cat was talking about.

"It seems to me that a storm is coming and by the looks of things it's going to be a fierce one indeed. I think it's best that we round up everyone and prepare for the worst."

"So I take it you want me to head back to that guy with the bucket hat's store."

"For now, that would be the best course of action for the time being."

Koneko simply nods in agreement.

"I'm sure your other friends are somewhere in town; I'll be sure to fetch them as well."

"Asia should be there, she wanted to spend some time with Issei."

"Oh very good then, that should make things easier for me." says as the cat and Koneko head back to the store and as they do they were watched by a few new figures in cloaks.

"Nya… we could have jumped her."

"If it wasn't for that cat, I'd agree… nya."

 **-Karakura High-**

During class, Ichigo was paying attention to his teacher until Uryu suddenly stands up from his desk.

"Teacher, may I have permission to go to the bathroom!"

Before the teacher could even give him a response, he had already left.

"Hmm...must be a bad case of the runs." In reality it was just an excuse for him to take out a hollow that was nearby and on the prowl.

As the day rolled on, it was lunch time and, like before, Rias and Ichigo went up to the roof with Orihime and Tatsuki close behind.

"So let me get this straight, you're living with Ichigo?" asks Tatsuki.

"Why yes I am. He was so generous to let me stay" Rias answers.

"It was my dad's idea" Ichigo added.

"Oh, well now that makes more sense."

"Yeah and Rias' friends are here in town too" says Orihime with a happy little tone.

"Really? Well isn't that quite the party" Tatsuki says, a little surprised by what she heard.

"You have no idea" says Ichigo with a deadpan look.

"Hm… why do you say that?" asks Tatsuki, feeling a little confused about what he said.

"Tell her Rias." Ichigo says.

Rias turned to Ichigo with a concerned look.

"Don't worry, she knows about the whole soul reaper gig and other supernatural stuff."

"Ohhhhh" Rias says in acknowledgement.

"Ichigo… what's going on?" Tatsuki looks at Ichigo with another concerned and worried look thinking that something is going on and it has to do with Rias.

"Let's just head up to the roof and we'll tell you everything."

"Good idea." says Orihime.

Once on the roof of the school and settling down for their lunch, Tatsuki listened intently to what Rias has to say.

"You see, Tatsuki, I'm a devil and I've come to Ichigo to ask him for his help with a problem… a marriage problem."

"Wait, you mean forced marriage? Are those still a thing in this day and age?"

"Well technically it's an arranged marriage but it really does feel like a forced marriage. Honestly, the man I'm forced with isn't exactly my type." says Rias in a momentarily frustrated tone.

"Ooookay… so how does Ichigo fit into all of this exactly? Granted I know he's going to help you but how's he going to do that?" Tatsuki takes a bite out her sushi roll.

"Simple… Ichigo has to become my boyfriend."

With that phrase said, Ichigo shockingly spits out his drink at what he heard while Orihime just faints on the floor, unable to take in what was said.

"SAY WHAT?!" Ichigo exclaims in surprise and horror.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's Brilliant! You and Ichigo together...Pfffft….Hahahahahahahaha….sigh…...well actually I can see that" say Tatsuki.

"Can it Tatsuki! Rias, what the hell? We barely know each other! Not to mention wasn't the plan suppose to be me fighting the guy!"

"Yes, exactly right." Rias says with a smile.

"Then I ask again. What. The. Hell?!" asks Ichigo with a serious tone.

"Ichigo just listen, for now my first part of the plan is for you and me to act like we're in love. That way when my family does come and find me they'll see that I've found another that I fancy, then they would have to respect my wishes and call off this whole thing."

"What if it doesn't Rias?"

"Then… we will have to fight even with the knowledge that Riser won't be taking this lightly."

"You know I would go straight to the fight instead of pulling something like this even if it is just an act" says Ichigo.

Then it came back to Ichigo, what he was suppose to ask Rias about earlier. "Speaking of Riser, I got to ask. What power does he have?"

"Oh right I forgot to tell you that. Thankfully you brought that up when you did." Rias answers as she takes a bite of her lunch, chewing and swallowing as she looks at Ichigo.

"You see Ichigo, Riser has inherited the powers of the immortal bird, Phoenix, granting him immortality and instant regeneration" says Rias as she explains to Ichigo.

"Instant regeneration, huh?" Ichigo quickly remembers that ability when he fought the Arrancars.

"Yes, not to mention he wields the phoenix power but it's mostly pyrokinesis" Rias explains.

"I see." Ichigo acknowledging the situation.

"Yes and he also has a full set in his peerage. Riser has all fifteen pieces under his command." Rias says as she looks down knowing that even if they would fight they would be at a disadvantage.

"And how many do you have?" Orihime asks, wanting in on this conversation.

"Unfortunately I only have my pawn Issei, my knight Kiba, my rook Koneko, my queen Akeno, and lastly my bishop Asia."

"Only 6 of you? That's not good even if we add myself, Orihime, Uryu and Chad we still be outnumbered."

"Even if we do have to fight, you can rely on us to back you up" says Orihime with a cheery attitude.

"Ah… hello, what about me?" Tatsuki chimes in.

"What about you?" Ichigo asks.

"You're kidding right? I mean honestly Ichigo who's the girl that kicked your butt in karate since the 5th grade?"

"You did, until that one fi-"

"Yeah, yeah but again tell me, who went to the national karate tournament and got to second place with a broken arm?"

"You did Tatsuki, not to mention that was years ago."

"Look my point is I want to help. Clearly you guys are outnumbered by this guy and his goons."

"I don't know Tats-OUCH!" Tatsuki quickly grabs Ichigo's arm twisting it and quickly traps him in one of her holds.

"Ow! Hey Tatsuki knock it off!" Ichigo exclaims as he struggles under Tatsuki's hold on him while Rias watches with amusement.

"I will if you let me join." Tatsuki then puts more pressure on her hold over Ichigo.

"But… you… don't have… an ability… OW!"

"So what?! I survived my encounter with that Aizen guy AND I can see spirits like you used to AND I can hold my own in a fight! Not to mention I survived a lot of hollow attacks too. So you better give me some credit."

"Geez… alright you can help… just let go of my damn arm already!"

With a smirk, Tatsuki lets go of Ichigo releasing him from her hold. Rias was very impressed with the girl.

"So Rias, how about it? Mind letting me kick some ass?!"

"Not at all! After hearing all of that and seeing what you did to Ichigo, how can I turn you down?"

"Yes!"

"Great" Ichigo murmurs under his breath.

"Well at least we have one more on our side" says Orihime with a smile.

As they continue to chat and have lunch, the school bell rings signaling that lunch time is over.

"Ah crap there goes lunch" says Tatsuki having to rush her lunch and almost choking on it.

"You know it's strange that Uryu and Chad didn't join us" says Rias as she noticed for a while that neither have come up to join them.

"Uryu is probably still dealing with that hollow, although he should be done by now" says Ichigo as he gathers his stuff and throws away his finished lunch in a waste bin.

"Plus Chad had to go to a meeting with his music club" says Tatsuki as the four teens go down the stairs and head to their next class.

Before they could continue talking, the school bell rings once more, bringing their conversation to a premature end.

"Welp catch you guys on the flipside" Tatsuki says as she quickly gathers her stuff and discards the unwanted trash before leaving the roof with Ichigo, Rias and Orihime following suit.

"Yeah we can talk more about this later" says Ichigo as he gathers his leftover lunch into his bag as the group heads back to their classes.

-After School-

With the afternoon classes coming to a close, despite how uneventful they were as usual, the final bell rings as everyone heads out and walks home.

Tatsuki and Orihime walked on home together with Orihime talking about her usual misadventures and bizarre, yet delicious, food ideas.

While Ichigo and Rias head back to the Kurosaki residence, they reach the large park with Rias stopping to gaze at it.

"Something wrong?" says Ichigo wondering.

Rias then looks over to Ichigo and smiles at him. "Let's go on a date."

"Say what?" Ichigo asks a bit befuddled.

"Let's go on a date, silly. I mean you did say that we should get to know each other better so why not walk through the park, just the two of us spending some time together."

Ichigo just looks at her with a raised eyebrow.

"You don't have to deal with your dad" Rias says with a sly smile.

"Ok let's do it."

"Yay date time!" Rias quickly grabs Ichigo's arm and heads into the park dragging the poor orange-haired teen by the arm.

" _What did I gotten myself into?_ " Ichigo thought as Rias drags him with her bust pressing against his arm making him blush a bit.

Ichigo got into it as the two strolled around the park and eventually stop by the swing as they talk with one another.

"Really? That actually happened?"

"Yup the guy is a real maniac, it was a miracle that I actually survived that fight let alone won it. Not to mention everytime he sees me he's all like: Hey Ichigo come and fight me!"

"Hehe, all of that to save Rukia? Oh Ichigo would you do the same for little old me?" Rias says with puppy dog eyes as she pouts her lips and pressing her chest making Ichigo blush more making him look the other way as he tries to hide his blush.

"Ah… well … you know, I..."

"My Rias, aren't you just the humblest one, clinging to this human peasant and all."

Ichigo and Rias look back towards the sound of the arrogant voice and there he stood; a handsome young man with blonde hair and an outfit consisting of a burgundy blazer with gold embroidery on the right with matching pants and black dress shoes. Underneath his open blazer is a white dress shirt that is not fully buttoned with just one button short giving a slight view of his chest.

"Riser!"

"So that's the guy?" Ichigo asks as he can feel the arrogance and smugness from a mile away.

"Rias you simply need to have better standards for yourself. What would your family think?"

"Well he's a lot more up to par than you would ever be." Rias stands from the swings and confronts the arrogant blonde.

"Come now Rias, think of our lineage, the honor of our respective families. You can't just throw all of that away." Riser comes towards Rias and wraps his arms around her. Ichigo stands up as well to interject but Rias quickly pushes Riser away.

"Stop it! I don't love you, in fact it's the opposite."

"Such harsh words Rias. It would be a shame if I had to knock off a few of your precious peerage to get you to come to your senses."

"What?"

"Oh yes, I know exactly where they are. I've had my own peerage scouting this….backwards town. Why you ever chose this place is beyond me. So… if you know what's good for you, your peerage, and perhaps this no name town, you do as I say." Riser then grabs Rias inappropriately and forces himself on her.

"Stop it!" Rias cries and as Riser was about to kiss her he instead receives a punch to the face from one enraged Ichigo.

Unable to hold himself back any longer, the former substitute soul reaper leaps into action and quickly punches Riser square in the face, forcing him to let go of Rias as he falls to the ground bleeding from the lip.

"The lady said no, you bastard!"

"You dare?! You dare put your filthy hands on me you...powerless human!"

"Ya damn right I would and I would do it again if you even think about touching her" Ichigo says as he stands over Riser but the blonde quickly gets back on his feet.

"You have no idea who you are up against, boy!" Riser's body erupts into flames, forcing Ichigo back as to not burn himself by Riser's flames.

"Ichigo!" cries Rias fearing for Ichigo's safety.

Ichigo stood his ground even if having to step away from the flames that surrounds Riser.

"What's wrong? Did I frighten you with my flames?"

"No just wondering if I could cook some hotdogs with your fire." says Ichigo with a smirk angering Riser even more.

"Ichigo careful you still don't have your powers back yet."

"I know but that doesn't mean I won't let this jerk-face have his way. I'm not backing down!"

"Oh~ cocky are we? Well then, if that's what you want you think, let me show you what you're up against." With a snap of his fingers Riser summons his peerage all fifteen members of his peerage and all of them are girls. From a woman with a revealing dress with violet hair, a girl in a kimono, another woman wearing a half mask, two very young girls wearing gym clothing, two woman wielding their respective swords, a pair of maids, one wielding a wooden staff, one that looks like a dancer, another in a chinse dress to a pair of twin cat girls wearing fighting gloves and lastly a girl with long blonde hair tied into twintails with large, drill-like curls and blue ribbons keeping them in place.

"So what you're a burning gigolo?" says Ichigo

"Watch your mouth you brute! My brother deserves your respect" says one of the girls with the same blonde hair as her brother.

"He deserves to get his ass kicked." says Ichigo definitely.

"Hmph… you do realize you're surrounded fifteen to one" says the purple haired woman.

"I've faced worse odds before, lady" Ichigo answers as all of the girls of Riser's peerage circles around him.

"Now, now... Ravel, Yubelluna, let's try to be civil in front of this uncivilized fool" Riser says with a smirk. As the odds begin to pile up against Ichigo, the teen refused to back down even when facing a full peerage and their fiery master.

"Defiant til the end I see, I'd say that's pretty admirable but completely foolish. Let's just see how you fair against my peerage then. Attack!" Riser's peerage quickly goes on the offense against Ichigo but suddenly...

"Riser stop!" Rias steps in as she fires a destruction ball, stopping Riser's girls from attacking the teen.

"Oh Rias, must you intervene?" Riser asks in an annoyed tone.

"I won't let you continue this farce any longer! I'm warning you Riser, if you don't leave right now..." says Rias in a crossed manner.

"What… what will happen? Let me remind you that you really have no choice in the matter. You don't have enough pieces to challenge me not to mention our families have already agreed on the matter. So why keep resisting the inevitable?"

Rias simply grit her teeth in response.

"Besides, what on earth would this peasant do? He's worthless and powerless… just like your whole peerage. So for the last time Rias come back and marry me or I will scorch your precious peerage and anyone who gets in my way! Including the peasant!" Riser threatens as he increases his fiery power, forcing both Rias and Ichigo back from the burning heat.

"Damn, that's hot." As Ichigo steps away, suddenly, out of the blue, Ichigo felt something sharply stab him in the back, a blue blade piercing through his body and sticking out of his chest.

"Ahck… wha-what the hell!?"

"Ichigo!" Rias turns and sees Ichigo being stabbed right from the back.

He never saw it coming at first he thought it was one of Riser's girls that did the deed but as he turned his head and sees a blurry figure holding what looks like Kisuke's spirit sword. At first the figure was very blurry but as the seconds pass by he can see the shadowy figure turn into the a an old friend he hasn't seen in quite a long time. She is short and petite, has light skin and purple eyes. Her hair is black, with several strands of hair always hanging between her eyes. It was Rukia.

"Hello, Ichigo."

"Ru-Rukia?" Ichigo states in shock.

"Rukia?" Rias asks as she herself can see the soul reaper before her; on how she manages to avoid detection is anyone's guess.

"Who is that girl?" asks Ravel.

"Ru-Rukia...is that….really...you?"

"Yeah it's me, now hold still."

Before Ichigo could react, Rukia twists the spiritual sword while still jabbed inside Ichigo. An explosion of reishi unleashed with everyone resisting the spiritual shock wave that resulted.

Everyone shields themselves from the immense light emanating from Ichigo's direction as the shock wave blows away the fire that Riser created. As the smoke clears, everyone is shocked at what they see standing before them. Ichigo is dawning his soul reaper outfit and on his back is his zanpakuto, Zangetsu, but his Shinigami attire is completely different than before. The outfit now consists of a thicker strap across his chest and has four black vertical lines on his forearms and black, tattoo-like bands crossing over his chest, wrists, and ankles. Similar bands, but with white ends, lie around his neck as collars.

Then there is his massive blade. Like before, Zangetsu has the appearance of an oversized, black khyber knife almost as tall as Ichigo himself but this time the zanpakuto has a hilt colored in red and sporting a short chain by the end of it; its hilt is colored red and coming with a cloth-wrapped tang wrapped around the blade.

"I-Ichigo... is that…?" Rias taken by surprise, in awe of what she sees before her as Ichigo looks completely different than before.

"Yeah... I'm back" says Ichigo as he grabs his zanpakuto and the cloth unwraps itself as he prepares to take on Riser.

 **To be continued!**

 **(Alrighty then now we're on the role next chapter we will have our full on stand off between Team Rias + Ichigo and friends against Team Riser and I' will leave it at that for the time being. Plus I will say this again this fanfiction is still going it's not canceled in anyway plus this chapter was mostly done for a few months.**

 **But as for what happened on why this took as long as it did. Well...here are the explanations.**

 **No 1. No/Busy Editor: My editor Ashton Mesmer had to leave the position mostly because college/work kept him busy. So I was left with no editor for a while, but I found myself another but he was busy as well and when he was finally free to work with I had to let him go do to our differences in standards. I looked around to find another who is well versed on both series to work with but to no avail. I won't publish a chapter without an editor's ok considering that I'm still not all that confident with my writing by itself without someone with more writing experience taking a look at and undo any errors I would make.**

 **No 2. Laptop Troubles: It died for a second time in a row and I had to wait for a month to have the chance to head out of town to Best Buy so that Geek Squad would tell me I had to wait 2 weeks to repair something that should have taken a day at most to fix. I tried to use my WiiU and PS3 as replacements for the laptop...didn't work out as well as I thought but at least I could watch Youtube with them.**

 **No 3. Pokemon Moon: I'm a Pokemon fan through and through and when a new main series game comes out I will play it.**

 **No 4. Trials of Cold Steel: While my laptop died and was away in repairs with Geek Squad I had this game on the shelf for a while only playing small bits here and there. But once I started playing the game I was hooked on it and after a while of playing it for days on end I beaten it. It's great game and if your into RPGs and if you still have a PS3 pick this up plus the sequel.**

 **No 5. Personal Life: My life keeps me busy especially with my folks plus the holidays and other responsibilities didn't make things any easier.**

 **Also I am working on several chapters mostly for season 2 and I do have the whole fanfic planned out but I won't say anything so not to ruin any good surprises ;)**

 **But for now I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and hopefully the next chapter won't take as long to make and release. Please do leave a review they help out a lot to motivate me to continue with this series even with all the bumps and holes that I had to deal with. Plus if you're new please do Fav + Follow for more The Devil and The Reaper. Til next time fans, later.)**

 **(The Devil and The Reaper is written by Alpha Espada and edited by Ashton Mesmer. Please support the official release of both series used in this crossover.)**


	6. A Rated Challenge, Old Friends Return

**(A/N: Here we go! Ladies and gentlemen. New chapter and this time it's both written and edited by yours truly and as always I have a few things to say. But I will tell them by the end of the chapter so please sit back and enjoy. :) )  
**  
And so there he stands with his powers restored to his former glory and with his zanpakuto in hand. Ichigo then gives Riser and his peerage a glare but then orange-haired substitute soul reaper turns and sees Rukia and seeing her again brought a smile on his face. Then he noticed another figure behind her that is a lot taller than petite soul reaper and sports long crimson hair, keeping it in a high ponytail. He also wears a maroon colored bandanna covering all of the tattoos on his forehead. It was Renji Abarai.

"Hey," Rukia says with a smile.

"Did you miss us?"

"Hey, Rukia and Renji to it's been a while."

"Yeah, two years to be exact and to think after all this time you've gotten stronger and smar-YEAH RIGHT!" shouts Rukia as she delivers an uppercut to an unexpecting Ichigo hitting him square on the jaw sending him to the ground shocking Rias, Riser, and his Peerage. Then Rukia tags Renji in and the crimson-haired soul reaper delivers an elbow drop on Ichigo's chest taking the air right out of him."

"OW!"

"I leave you alone for two lousy years and here I find you meddling with hell's remaining noble families affairs, are you crazy or what?!" Rukia yelled in anger of what Ichigo was up to.

"Seriously, Ichigo you really outdid yourself this time." says Renji as he gets off Ichigo.

Rias tries to say that it wasn't Ichigo's fault but only for the teen to respond quickly way before she had a chance to speak as he quickly pushes Renji off of him.

"Geez, is that how you two treat a friend that you haven't seen in a few years?!" Ichigo exclaims as he quickly gets back on his feet and comes up to Rukia's face.

"Damn right, especially when said friend does something this stupid!" exclaims Rukia

"I mean really Ichigo, what you did in the Soul Society is one thing but this is just pushing your luck," says Renji joining Rukia in chastising Ichigo

"At least I don't attack my friends like a psychotic shrimp and a demented Baboon!"

"What you say!?" shouted both Rukia and Renji at the same time.

"You heard me!" shouts Ichigo

As Ichigo, Rukia and Renji continue to argue Rias, Riser, and his peerage just stand there unable to guess if both soul reapers are actual friends.

"Are...aren't they supposed to be friends or something?" Ravel says feeling confused on what she's witnessing before her. When she saw them greeting each other in such a friendly matter only to turn violent towards each other leaving the young blonde girl with a large question mark. But then Riser steps forward while being annoyed by the fact that he's being ignored.

"Hey, Peasants!" Riser shouts as Rukia, Renji and Ichigo look towards him.

"This farce has gone far enough! I'm going to take Rias Gremory back and have her wed to me! One way or another!" says, Riser, as he creates a ball of fire in his hand.

"Oh yeah? If you want her so badly you have to go through me first!" Ichigo exclaims as he draws his Zangetsu ready to throw down with the blonde noble.

"Ichigo!" Rukia exclaims

"Don't be stupid."

"Fine by me!" says Riser as he comes for Ichigo

"Then come on!" With his Zangetsu in hand and ignoring both Renji and Rukia, Ichigo goes for the offense.

But as both Ichigo and Riser dash towards each other ready to deliver their respective attacks they were both suddenly stopped by a pair of powerful figures. The one that stopped Ichigo was the man himself Kisuke using his cane to block Ichigo's Zanpakuto while on Riser's side he's being blocked by a woman with silver hair and matching eyes and wearing a blue and white French maid outfit with long sleeves and a white maid headband over her head, with red lipstick as a cosmetic accessory. She blocks him simply by raising her right arm and keeping him from going any further.

"Grayfia!?" exclaims Rias in surprise to see the family maid here.

"Hello, Lady Rias, nice to see your well."

"Kisuke? What are you doing?"

"Well Ichigo, as you can see I'm stopping you."

"Why!?"

"Because I asked him to." says Grayfia as Riser knew not to push his luck with the ultimate queen and steps back without saying another word.

What?

"You heard the lady Ichigo, Miss Grayfia was waiting at my shop when I finally arrived from the Soul Society."

 **-Ten Minutes Ago-**

Returning from the Soul Society using a Senkaimon and with the spiritual sword inside the sealed box in hand and accompanied by Rukia right next to him with Renji close behind Kisuke finally returns to the world of the living after having a meeting with the captains.

"Ahh...to think I was expecting them to turn me down on my request to restore Ichigo's powers and for the Head Captain to arrest me for treason. Buuut I was worried for nothing…..goes to show how much Ichigo made an impact with them."

"Yeah….can't wait to see the look on his face when we restore his powers." says Rukia feeling happy knowing that soon she would finally have the chance to see Ichigo after two years of being away from Karakura Town.

"Yeah, I figured he's going to be real surprised to see us." Says Renji feeling the same enthusiasm as Rukia of meeting Ichigo soon.

"Yes, anyway here." says Kisuke as he hands over the box to Rukia making her grab the handle.

"Wha-what?" Rukia caught by surprise

"Wait, aren't you going to do it?" says Renji in confusion

"Oh no, unfortunately, I have business inside my shop that needs attending." Kisuke then points his cane at his shop and both him, Rukia and Renji could feel the ominous feeling of a very powerful being inside the shop.

"I really don't like the feeling of whatever is inside their." says Renji.

"Looks like I have a customer inside," Kisuke says in a happy tone as if not caring of the ominous feeling that is inside his store.

Feeling the overwhelming power Rukia lets out a gulp out of nervousness. "I..I...see."

"Besides, it's shouldn't be too hard. All you have to do is draw the sword and simply impale Ichigo with it. Like how you did it the last time."

"Bu-but."

"Wait, wait are you sure about this? I mean I feel that you should be the one to do it since you know how the spiritual sword works and all."

"Oh don't worry too much. I know Rukia will do fine. The chance of failure for the spiritual transfer is roughly around five to eight percent and I should know I made the thing," says Kisuke with a happy grin while his bucket hat hides his eyes.

"Very well...if you say so. We'll go and look for Ichigo then," says Rukia feeling the weight of the responsibility on her shoulders but Renji puts his hand on her shoulder giving her a reassuring nod that she will do fine.

"I'm sure you'll find him quickly."

"Yeah I mean how hard it is to find a teen with orange hair?" says Renji as he goes ahead and flashsteps in search of Ichigo.

Rukia simply nodded as she uses flashstep, as well as both soul reapers search for Ichigo leaving the area quickly.

As they leave Kisuke walks over to his shop's entrance while still feeling the tremendous power that's inside the shop. He opens and then he sees Grayfia browsing around the shop like she was a customer. But he can still feel her immense power coming from her. She has enough power to rival a captain or even surpass one.

But Kisuke remained calm seeing that the woman before him is simply looking around his shop. The man quickly gathers his wits and act like his usual self when dealing with customers of his shop.

"Welcome to Urahara shop, is there something that you're looking for today? Because we have special on-

"I would like to know the whereabouts of Rias Gremory." Grayfia interrupting Kisuke as she looks over to his direction.

"Hmm….I take it you are a family member of hers?" asks Kisuke keeping his cool like a professional.

"I'm her sister in law." says Grayfia monotone.

"I see."

"Yes, now I'll ask again where is Rias Gremory?" Grayfia now walking towards Kisuke with her eyes as if they are locked in on the shop keeper.

Kisuke can feel the pressure and her immense power doesn't exactly help matters. But for the sake of professionalism, he keeps his usual happy mood. "Well currently she's staying with Mr. Ichigo Kurosaki, but I would not worry. Ichigo is a very capable young man."

Grayfia simply gives Kisuke a soft glare not taking this as lightly as he is as she walks towards the man and stops in front of him.

"Where can I find them? I won't ask again." Grayfia says losing patients with Kisuke.

Kisuke then looks over at one of his clocks to see that it's past four thirty meaning school's out for more than an hour and before he could answer he and Grayfia felt an explosive and burning power coming from the park.

"I think I have a pretty good idea of where they are." says Kisuke having a mental breather of the woman attention was off him and towards the burning power.

"I see that Master Riser has found her. I must make haste."

"I'll join you, can't have the hero of the winter war to be reduced to ash so easily."

 **-Present Time-**

"And here we are keeping the two of you from fighting. Once again I was worried for nothing," says Kisuke as he keeps blocking Ichigo's Zangetsu with just his cane.

"You honestly think I would lose to that burning gigolo?!"

"What did you say, peasant!?" Riser shouts as he pushes against Grayfia's arm a little.

"Enough! Calm yourself, Lord Riser. We don't need for you to make any more of a scene than it already is." says Grayfia

Riser simply bit his tongue once again knowing that arguing with Grayfia is never a wise idea and steps away while putting out his flames. Grayfia agitated with Riser's behavior then turns and looks over to Rias while returning to her calm and professional state.

"Lady Rias, please return home. Your family is waiting for you."

"I refuse, and as the future head of The House of Gremory, I will choose on who I will marry. Not to mention I was promised that I will do as I please until I graduate from University," says Rias

"Yes your family did promise you that, but the situation has been changed as the Phenex family and mostly Lord Riser cannot wait that long I'm afraid."

Rias just grit her teeth once again in frustration having to deal with her family's and Riser's nonsense.

"But since you continue to resist against your family's wishes my husband and your father offers you an opportunity to call off the marriage."

"I'm listening," says Rias curiously

"But first I do recommend you summoning all of your pieces of your peerage."

Rias thought for a moment, but there was no reason that she would doubt Grayfia. Especially since she's always serious when it comes to this sort of situation. The crimson-haired girl pulls out her cell phone but before she would dial Akeno along with Uryu appeared and soon after Tatsuki, Orihime and Chad joined in and once they saw Ichigo they were shocked to see him restored his soul reaper powers.

"Ichigo!?" Orihime says in surprise to see Ichigo in his soul reaper form with Chad sharing the same expression.

"Rias," says Akeno as she goes to her best friend's side. But with one look at her surroundings and seeing both Grayfia and Riser, she already has a pretty good idea of what's going on. Then she noticed Ichigo in his soul reaper outfit.

"Oh Ichigo, nice look. Black really does bring out your orange," says Akeno with a smile

"Ah...thanks, I think," says Ichigo as he quickly looks over to his friends and seeing the look on their shocked faces with the exception of Uryu as if nothing can surprise the Quincy teen.

"I see you recovered your powers, Kurosaki," said Uryu as he readjusts his glasses

"Yeah but….what are you guys doing here?"

"Are you kidding first we saw a pillar of fire erupting towards the sky and the next thing we saw an explosion of spirit energy. Did you honestly expect us to just ignore all of that!?" says Tatsuki

"Tatsuki makes a good point Ichigo," said Orihime but then she quickly noticed Rukia and Renji are with them.

"Rukia! Renji It's been so long!" Orihime says with joy as she rushes over and hugs the petite soul reaper first and then gives one to Renji as well.

"Ye-yeah it has but Orihime this isn't the best time," Rukia said as Orihime noticed that they're not the only ones here and sees another group in front of them.

"Oh, I see."

"So Rias did you abandoned your old pieces for this group? Are you hoping that they would give you an edge?" Riser says with a smirk on his face. "This should be a lot easier than I thought."

"How dare you accuse me of abandoning my pieces! But unfortunately, these friends of mine are not part of my peerage," says Rias starting to get very tired of Riser's attitude.

"Hmmm….even so they don't look all that strong to me." Riser said in an arrogant matter

"Oh, you wanna try us, buddy!?" Tatsuki says in anger already getting sick of the blonde pure devil.

"Hmph..you're invited to try little girl." says Riser mockingly at Tatsuki as the teen is quick to go at him only to be stopped by Ichigo.

"Hey!" shouts Tatsuki becoming madder by the minute and without thinking charges towards Riser ready to slug him one.

"Don't Tatsuki, you'll get burnt if you get too close." Ichigo disengages from Kisuke and quickly grabs Tatsuki before she could reach the Phoenix noble.

But before she could say her complaint to Ichigo. "Hey, you jerk! Lay off our president!" Coming from the right side of this confrontation is Issei along with Asia, Kiba, Koneko and are accompanied by Yoruichi in her cat form still.

"Issei!" Rias says in surprise that her peerage all came.

"And we came just in time too," says Yoruichi as Issei and the rest of Rias's peerage goes to her side. "Issei, everyone," says Rias in a heartfelt matter.

"We came here as fast as we could." says Asia already determined as Issei is already had his sacred gear out and ready for a fight.

"We heard of what going on, thanks to Kisuke and the maid."

 **-Quick Flashback-**

As both leave the store both Asia and Issei slowly comes out of the back door having heard what they said while hidden in the stairway that would lead to the training area.

"Issei, what should we do?"

"We're going to find and help Rias!"

 **-Quick Flashback End-**

"Then we bump into Kiba, Koneko, and the cat and here we are ready for anything," says Issei already fired up but then noticed Ichigo wearing a weird get-up and two other wearing the same outfit. Then he sees Ichigo's zanpakuto and how big it is as Ichigo holds it with just one hand like it was nothing while he's keeping a girl in his other arm.

"Uh...hey Ichigo….what's with the outfits?"

"I'll explain later, Issei."

"So everyone is here."

"Hmm...I see, so including your queen, you only have six pieces while I have a whole set," says Riser as he can't help but chuckle on how things are turning out.

"Wrong!" Ichigo exclaims interrupting Riser's chuckle making him look over to the orange-haired teen.

"Rias might only have six pieces but she still got our support!"

"Oh really? Last I check that you need a total of sixteen pieces to even participate a Rating Game."

"Rating Game?" Ichigo says wondering what that is exactly.

"But even with these 'friends' of yours, you still be several pieces short."

But before anyone could say anything else Grayfia got everyone's attention when she loudly clears her throat.

"I do believe I have a remedy for Lady Rias's dilemma and since everyone is here and accounted for I can now say what I was going to say."

Everyone looks towards Grayfia with anticipation on what she's about to say especially Rias.

"Lady Rias, if you wish to undo the engagement with Lord Riser then your father and my husband will give you the chance to do so. If you win a Rating Battle."

"What!? Rating Battle?" exclaims Riser as this is the first time he hears such a version of the Rating Game.

"Yes, do to Lady Rias lacking a complete peerage set to participate a Rating Game both Lord Gremory, my husband, and the creator of the Rating Games himself have devised a new version of the Rating Game. Granted the rules are more or less the same with a few exceptions, but to put it simply it will be a full on battle between both teams and the one left standing wins," says Grayfia explaining the new concept.

"I see," says Rias

"Yes but note that the maximum number of members of each team is still sixteen but it won't be restricted to only sixteen members. Unless of course, Lady Rias would include her friends into her team."

"But that's just absurd! They are not even devils!" says Riser in anger but only to be silenced by Grayfia's glare.

"While that is true, Lady Rias can choose non-devils to be on her team if she wishes to. So Lady Rias, what will you do?"

Before Rias could answer she looks back towards Ichigo and the rest with the substitute soul reaper giving her a nod of approval while Issei gives Rias a thumbs up to show his support to which she smiles as she turns to Grayfia and gives her answer.

"Very well, Grayfia I accept."

"Understood, and in the addition, both parties have eight days to prepare for the Rating Battle. Are we clear?"

"Yes." says Rias without hesitation.

"Hmph...very well, but like I said before my dear Rias, you and your peerage and your friends don't stand a chance. In the end when the smoke clears you will be my bride," says Riser as the young man opens a large portal of fire taking him and his peerage back to the underworld.

"Sigh….glad he's gone." says Rias as she takes a deep breath in relief once Riser left.

"Damn Rias, you were not kidding about that guy. Geez I wanted to punch him so hard," says Tatsuki after Ichigo let's go of her once the blonde left as she punches her right hand still feeling annoyed by the blonde noble.

"Not exactly a humble fellow," says Uryu

"Hmph reminds me of the stuck up nobles back in the Soul Society," says Renji

"Yeah," said Chad

"But it does look like he had a bit of a fan club," says Orihime

"That wasn't his fan club Orihime, they were his peerage," says Rias

"Oh."

"Anyway….let's all regroup and head back to Mr. Urahara's place unless you object," Rias says as she looks over to Kisuke.

"Not at all Miss Rias. I lend you one of my rooms so that you can have your little meeting."

"Thank you, Mr. Urahara."

"So I take it you won't return to your home, Lady Rias?"

"No, I won't, as of now I much to do and to get ready for what's to come."

"Very well my lady, I'll be sure to deliver your wardrobe and other necessities and to inform your family of your decision," says Grayfia

"Thank you, Grayfia," says Rias as the maid creates her own portal as she takes her leave.

 **-Back in Urahara's Shop-**

Using one of Kisuke's vacant rooms Rias, Ichigo back in his normal body and the rest gather around and large round table with everyone taking a seat.

"So you're the famous Ichigo Kurosaki, my name is Kiba Yuuto it's a pleasure," says Kiba offering his hand to Ichigo

"Hey nice to meet you," says Ichigo with a small smile shaking Kiba's hand then noticed the white-haired girl Koneko just staring at him.

"Ah...hey," say Ichigo

"Come now Koneko it's not polite to stare," says Rias.

Koneko remained silent for a few more seconds and like Kiba she offers her hand too. "Nice to meet you."

"Pleasure's all mine."

"Hello, my name is Asia, thank you for helping Rias," says Asia introducing herself to Ichigo

"It's no problem," says Ichigo having a feeling of deja vu with Asia being very similar to Yuzu not to mention that Koneko girl looks and acts similarly to Karin.

Then Rias looks over to Rukia and Renji as she didn't get the chance to properly introduced each other yet.

"So you two are Renji and Rukia, correct?"

"Yes, that's right," Rukia answered

"That's us," says Renji

"It's nice to meet you, Ichigo told me a lot about you."

"And I take it that you're Rias Gremory?"

"Why yes, it's very nice to meet you both."

"Likewise." said both Rukia and Renji

"So with all of that out of the way, mind explaining why you two gave me so much crap for helping Rias?" asks Ichigo annoyed at both Rukia and Renji for their actions.

"About that, Ichigo," said Renji before Rukia would speak

"The reason why I gave you so much flak when I restored your soul reaper powers is because the Soul Society would avoid confronting or get involved with the other factions of the afterlife, which is why the Soul Society never got involved with the three faction war."

"I see," said Ichigo

"But since you're not officially part of the Soul Society this doesn't affect you officially."

"Still doesn't exactly explain the tag team beating you both gave me!" said Ichigo in an annoyed tone.

"It's simple really." says Rukia in a matter of factually matter.

"Oh, this should be good." Ichigo

"Sometimes you just act way to recklessly and you need a good punch every now and agai-"

"Bull crap and you know it!" shouts Ichigo cutting off Rukia.

"Ok, ok you two can argue about this later," says Kisuke as he steps in and breaks up the fight between both Rukia and Ichigo knowing that if they continue they never stop.

"Speaking of which, how the hell did you get the soul society to give out their spirit energy to the spiritual sword? I thought it's illegal for a soul reaper to give a human soul reaper powers," says Ichigo as he feels the spiritual energies of several of his friends back in the Soul Society including the Head Captain's.

As if on cue Kisuke comes into a cheery grin on his face.

"Oh, Ichigo I'm glad you ask such an important question."

"Why do I feel like it's another flashback story?"

 **-Several hours earlier in The Soul Society Squad One Barracks-**

In one of the meeting halls, all of the captains have gathered from Retsu Unohana, Byakuya Kuchiki, Toshiro Hitsugaya, and Shunsui Kyōraku to Soi Fon, Kenpachi Zaraki, Jushiro Ukitake, Sajin Komamura and Mayuri Kurotsuchi and the man in the center is the Head Captain Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto. After receiving a hell butterfly, all of the captains have come to the squad one barracks for the urgent meeting with Kisuke. The man himself is already on one knee and bowing before them with the spiritual sword in hand inside a glass case with a handle on top. The head captain was the first to speak.

"Kisuke Urahara, what is the meaning of this meeting you want to have with us that is so urgent?"

"I came here to request the Gotei 13 to assist in restoring the soul reaper powers of Ichigo Kurosaki." When Kisuke said this everyone even the head captain was surprised with such a request.

Having a minute to think over what Kisuke has requested the head captain speaks with a question.

"Why choose now to restore his soul reaper powers?" asks Yamamoto

"It's because he's currently in a situation that involves with one of the 42 Pillar noble families of the underworld. He's currently involved with the heiress of the Gremory family to be specific."

And with that said it raised more concern as all of the captains, save both Kenpachi and Mayuri can't help but be shocked by the current situation. Byakuya became the first one to speak.

"Honestly, it's one thing for Ichigo Kurosaki would get himself involved and meddle with the matters of the Soul Society, now he's meddling with the matters of the Underworld. To think he would know better," says Byakuya in a calm but annoyed voice.

"Granted he did do a lot for the soul society and the Seireitei." says Unohana in her usual sweet voice.

"Even so it's very reckless of him to get himself involved in the first place," Toshiro says

"True, especially how differently the government of the underworld works their laws unlike that of the soul society and central 46," says Shunsui

"Agreed, But let's not forget that he defeated Aizen, although at the cost of his powers as a soul reaper," said Jushiro

"Regardless, the soul society has since from the beginning had stayed away from the matters of the other factions of the afterlife for centuries even avoiding taking part of the faction war. This has been law held by Central 46."

"That might be true sir, but currently the central 46 has yet to fully formed as of yet. Not to mention Ichigo Kurosaki isn't exactly an official soul reaper considering he's not from any of our squads and has done his job in the world of the living. Once more he's merely a substitute soul reaper for starters." said Shunsui once again

Yamamoto ponders of what Shunsui said. When it is true that Central 46 has yet to form since the first members were killed by Aizen and it has been difficult to replace the late members since most of that govern the Seireitei fear that what happen to the first members could happen to them. Leaving most of their responsibilities to the Soul Society mostly to the head captain.

"Not to mention, we and the rest of the Soul Society as a whole owe him a great debt, and what better way to repay him than to restore his powers." says Shunsui once again proving his case to the head captain.

Yamamoto remains silent as he thinks over more before his train of thought was derailed by.

"Oh come on! Just give Ichigo his power back so I could fight him!" shouts Kenpachi getting tired of the trivial talk that filled the room by the other captains.

"Is that all you think about Captain Zaraki." says Byakuya giving the captain of Squad eleven a cold and judgemental look.

"Don't give me that, it's been ages since I had a decent fight and if the kid does get his powers back I can finally challenge him and finish our fight."

"Didn't you lose to him in the first place." says Mayuri as the meeting went on he was tinkering with a small device he has in his hands.

"Oh please, that doesn't count. We were both knocked out, meaning that no one won." Kenpachi exclaims

"ENOUGH!" Finally having enough of the banter amongst the captains Yamamoto's shout got most of them to be silent. Now with that out of the way the head captain then looks over to Kisuke who remains with his head bow down and still in one knee and not wearing his usual green and white hat.

"Tell me Kisuke, what exactly is the situation of Ichigo Kurosaki and the heiress of the Gremory household?" says the head captain

"Basically the heiress in question Ms. Rias Gremory asked Ichigo in assisting her out of an arranged marriage."

Yamamoto raised one of his thick white eyebrows.

"And of course being the good soul that he is, Ichigo accepted her need for help and his currently guarding her."

"Why does this sound somewhat familiar?" says Toshiro

Yamamoto remains silent thinking over of what Kisuke and the rest of the captains have said and after a few more minutes of silence, Yamamoto finally comes to a decision.

"Very well."

"Head Captain!" Unohana says in surprise of the head captain's decision.

"After much consideration of the situation at hand and the fact we do owe Ichigo Kurosaki a tremendous debt in all that he has done for the Soul Society. It would be a dishonor if we do not repay him for his deeds. Therefore I hereby give the order of restoring Ichigo Kurosaki's powers effectively immediately." says Yamamoto with authority.

"Yes, Sir." said the rest of the captains loyally

 **-Present Time in Urahara Shop-**

"Funny that you left out the part that you were the one that got me into this mess in the first place."

"Even if I was pardoned and proven innocent of Aizen's crimes, I probably would still get in trouble for this." says Kisuke while using his fan to cover his face much to Ichigo's annoyance.

"Well, at least that clears things up. But it's a shame that the both of you can't join the team since the Soul Society isn't all that keen to get involved with Underworld affairs and I don't wish to give you any trouble."

"Well...about that," says Rukia

"Huh?" says Ichigo

"Normally yes, but thanks to Kisuke, for the next two weeks we've been given special permission to assist you in the matter. But this is mostly their way of paying back the debt to you, and in a way as thanks for what you did Ichigo, " says Rukia with a smile

"So technically we can join the team," says Renji

"Oh nice!" says Ichigo with a smile happy to have both soul reapers on the team.

"Hmmm….but not to rain on the parade, but the problem remains that we're three members short."

"Make that two."

Everyone looks over and sees Yoruichi in her human form wearing a white t-shirt and black skinny jeans and her purple hair tied in a ponytail. When Koneko saw Yoruichi she immediately figured out that she was the cat just by her scent.

"Wait Yoruichi, you want in on this fight?!" says Ichigo taken by surprise by Yoruichi's decision of joining the team.

"Of course, after all, I don't do much aside slaying hollows and doing quick deliveries. Quite frankly I'm bored and want to have some fun for once, not to mention you guys look like you need some real serious training if you want even a shot to win." Yoruichi says as she looks over towards Rias's peerage.

"Oh come on! I've been training since this morning. If anything I feel I can take anyone!" says Issei with great confidence.

"Hmm...even so just by sensing your power even though you've have gotten stronger it's not by much," says Yoruichi flatly

"Oh," says Issei deflated as he sits back down while Asia goes and place her hand on his back and gives him a small pat.

"But hey Rome wasn't built in a day, that's why I'm going to help you guys train for the next eight days, ah it would be like the good ol' days when I was training Soifon," says Yoruichi

"I guess I'll have to train too especially since we're going up against Mr. Bigshot and his groupie squad, I really need to get my game up," says Tatsuki

"So I take it we're all going to train in Mr. Urahara's training ground?" asks Kiba

"Yup, starting tomorrow at six hundred hours sharp, I'll be working you guys down to the bone. Are we ready for tomorrow?!" says Yoruichi with enthusiasm.

"This should be good," says Koneko

"I can't wait," says Akeno with a smile

"Interesting, to say the least," says Kiba feeling confident for tomorrow.

"I hope I can keep up," Asia says in a nervous voice

"Oh yeah, hell I'm ready right now," Issei says already feeling up to the challenge.

"Alright, alright but before anything, I have something to say to everyone." says Rias as she stands up and looks at everyone.

"First of all, I like to thank all of you. As most of you know, this whole arranged engagement with Riser was something I never wanted. Not that I wish to disappoint my family, but if I want to marry, I want to marry the one I chose. At first, I felt trapped and didn't have a choice, until now." Rias then looks over to Ichigo and his friends. "I'm glad that I came to Karakura Town even if it was by accident and I'm thankful for meeting and getting to know all of you."

"Aww, Rias." says Orihime feeling her heart touched by Rias's words.

"But that being said, thanks to my father and my brother I finally have a chance to break this engagement. But to do this we have to give it our all. So for the next 8 days, we're going to train and push ourselves to our limits and break through them." says Rias with everyone nodding in agreement.

"So with all of that being said, I once again like to thank all of you for helping me with this endeavor. So let's get some rest because tomorrow we will hit the ground running." says Rias raising her fist up in the air as her peerage responds with a "Yeah" in a union.

With that their small meeting comes to an end and as everyone was leaving to come back home Kisuke signals Ichigo to come and meet him in the small backyard of the shop.

 **-Backyard Urahara Shop-**

"What's up Kisuke?"

"Just want to have a little talk."

"Ok, about?"

"About the real reason why I stopped you from fighting Mr. Riser."

"Uh ok, and what would that be?"

"Well to put it simply if you two were to fight it out you could have easily destroyed the park and maybe several blocks."

Ichigo's widen in shock having heard clear as day what Kisuke said but still. "Wait, but what made you say that?"

"You just restored your powers, and it's been two years since you have used them. If you would have gone all out, all of that power could have gone out of control and would have been unleashed on not just Mr. Riser and his peerage but probably some part of Karakura."

Ichigo still remains in shock. If Kisuke wasn't there to stop him? But before continuing with that thought he quickly discards it and shakes off the feeling as he looks at Kisuke ready to listen to the enigmatic man.

"Granted you're not as strong as you when you defeated Aizen. You're currently as strong if not stronger than a captain-class soul reaper. But with all that said I still suggest you use the next eight days to train yourself to fully control your powers, you probably have to call in sick. But let me handle that for now," says Kisuke already pulling out a memory device and tinkering it with a smiling glee.

"So wait, you're not going to help me?" Ichigo asks

"No sadly, this is more for you to do on your own. Besides I already have plans to train Issei even thought Yoruichi will mostly be the one training them, granted I can train more than one person but like I said. I feel that you should do this by yourself." Kisuke said still tinkering with the memory device.

"What should I do first with my training?"

"Well first off you should go to your inner world and see how it is, then find and talk with your zanpakuto spirit and the rest should be getting used to your powers again."

"But what about my stamina training?"

"I feel you should keep going with that, gives you more to do in your training."

"Alright, if you say so, anything else?"

"No, no that should be it until tomorrow."

"Ok then, night."

"Good night, Mr. Kurosaki."

As Ichigo goes to the backdoor he stops by the entrance and looks over at Kisuke.

"One more thing."

"Yes?"

"Why me? Why get me involved with this even without my powers."

"Hmmm….you could say I felt that you're the right one for the job….and it doesn't hurt to try and hook you up with a nice girl."

"Seriously!? You and Dad really know how to screw with me," says Ichigo in an annoyed tone.

"Oh come now, you have to admit, Ms. Gremory is quite the catch."

"Oh shut up! I'm out of here." Without saying another word Ichigo leaves with Urahara still grinning from ear to ear as he finishes his device.

Once in the front of the shop, the rest have gone home with Rukia crashing at Orihime's place and Renji staying at Chad's place. The only one there was Rias who was waiting for him.

"Hey, did something happen?" says Rias noticing Ichigo's scowl

"No, just Kisuke wanted to talk, mostly about tomorrow," says Ichigo

Rias simply giggles in response as they both head back home.

"I just know my dad is going to give me hell." says Ichigo dreading when they do get home Isshin will get on his case and spout nonsense again.

"Oh I'll just say that we were on a date." says Rias with a smile.

"Too bad we never finished ours," says Ichigo

"Hmm...true meaning," Rias says thinking until an idea pops in her mind as she walks ahead of Ichigo and gives him a mischievous look.

"Meaning?" Ichigo asks with a raised eyebrow.

"You owe me a date, Ichigo. And after all of this is over we're going on a proper date," says Rias with a smile as she continues to walk ahead leaving Ichigo there standing after what she said but he got his composure back and catches up with her.

"Yeah, sure whatever you want." says Ichigo with Rias still smiling as both return to the Kurosaki residence with Isshin attempting another ambush only for Ichigo to quickly react by slamming his foot into his father's face.

 **To be continued!**

 **(A/N: Wooooow that was a long chapter, almost broke 20 pages making this thing. But don't expect this to be the usual since I normally do 12 to 15 pages. Not to mention to have a full peerage it's 16 pieces not 15, Thanks, HS DxD Wiki! I could have chopped this chapter in two but it would throw my planned chapters into the gutter.**

 **To which speaking of plans thrown into the gutter, recently I found out that Highschool DxD is getting a Season 4. Meaning I have to check it out and probably re-work my plans for this fic, mostly to re-arrange and adding the arcs in their proper place.**

 **Not to mention we finally get to see the captains again, and for those of you wondering why I exclude Shinji and the rest of the Visoreds from the Soul Society. To put it simply I have plans for them since I like them a lot and it would be a lot easier to work with them since they would be free agents. Blame Central 46's looney laws, granted some are just fillers but still gotta have a reason why the Soul Society have stayed clear from the other factions after all this time. And Yes the other factions know of the Soul Society and I will leave it at that.**

 **As for the Rating Battle, this is something that came to me when figuring out a way to add the bleach characters into the Rating Game. To put it simply the Rating Battle is similar to Rating Game only that it's rules are simpler and will be a Team vs. Team battle with the last one standing wins. Think of it as a 16 vs 16 Pokemon battle for example. Hopefully, you guys like the idea.**

 **And to AJ who got right two of his guesses, I'm still debating on who will be the final two members for Team Gremory. It's not like I have anything against Ikkaku or the rest of the Soul Society, just that they will show up in the next season just won't say when. Probably will add Hiyori and maybe Shinji because I am pushing it by adding 3 captain-class soul reapers into the team and Riser's peerage aren't that strong which would result getting a power boost just to even things out. Maybe have Shinji go head to head with Riser first and see where it leads, but this is a BIG maybe.**

 **Also, I'd like to thank BrokenLifeCycle for suggesting me the program Grammarly, this thing reeeaally helped out a lot and one of the reasons this chapter didn't take several months to post. Ha!**

 **Like I said before I did the writing and editing for this chapter since my former editor Ashton is still busy with college and work. So let me know what you guys think with a review since like before helps a lot and keeps me motivated knowing you guys love my work so far.**

 **Lastly, I'd like to thank everyone for faving and following my story and thanks for the kind words in your reviews as I said they really help to keep me going. So next time we have nothing but training and sparring for the next two chapters before the big match. So til next time fans, later!)**

 **(The Devil and The Reaper is written and edited by Alpha Espada. Please support the official release of both series used in this crossover.)**


	7. 8 Days of Training, The First Day

**(A/N: Hello everybody, I hope you all are doing good and hope that you guy like the new chapter. Plus thanks for your thoughts on the previous chapter and for that I grant you all a brand spanking new chapter with all the bells and whistles. As always enjoy the chapter.)**

 **-Urahara's Training Grounds-**

 **Day 1, 9:30 A.M.**

Ever since they started in the morning Rias and her peerage were training with the help of Yoruichi overseeing their training while Kisuke trains Issei. At the start of their day, Urahara brought some training gear for them including timers and a few fighting dummies. Everyone from Issei to Ichigo picked their respective partner for the day and are training in different parts of the large underground area giving each other their much-needed space for their respective sparring and or practice and every so often taking a ten-minute break so not to be too exhausted by the day's end.

On one side Kiba using his Sword Birth is sparing with Renji and his Zabimaru. "Now Roar! Zabimaru!" Renji shouts as he swings his zanpakutou the segmented blade would extend thanks to the stretchable thread in between them as he swings the sword downward towards the blonde knight.

But Kiba quickly dodges it by moving out of the way while wielding a two-handed longsword as he charges towards Renji. "You have to do better than that."

"Oh don't worry, I got more in store." Renji then pulls back his Zabimaru as the whip-like sword's segments return directly to Renji only for the soul reaper by moving his wrist would the direction slightly change and have it go straight towards Kiba.

But the blonde was quick to react as he blocks the incoming attack with his own sword and quickly deflects Zabimaru.

"Hey not bad, you know with your ability I'd say you would fit well in the Soul Society." says Renji as the soul reaper brings back the rest of Zabimaru on his side retracting the zanpakuto into its normal length.

"You think so?"

"Yeah, I'd say you be a third seat or maybe a lieutenant with a little more training."

"Thank you for your praise, sensei."

"Please just Renji, and I'm not exactly teacher material."

"If you say so, now back to business." Kiba dispels his two-handed sword and summons a pair of long knight swords and quickly dash towards Renji. Only for the crimson-red haired Shinigami to block his attack with his Zabimaru.

As both Kiba and Renji continue with their sparring another spar fight was under way with Uryu taking on Akeno as the raven-haired girl uses her magic to fire her lightning bolts at the Quincy and in turn he response by firing multiple arrows towards her only for Akeno to fly out of the way and fires another lightning bolt at Uryu only for him to dodge her attack with his speed.

"My you're very good."

"Thank you, after many fights that I've been I tend to pick up a few tricks here and there."

"You don't say, also now that I have the chance. I've been meaning to spar with you ever since that hollow swarm yesterday. You're pretty strong." says Akeno as she fires another one of her thunderbolts at Uryu only for the teen to quickly dodge and fire another arrow at Akeno only for her to counter it with her lightning magic.

"Thank you, but it is my duty to protect the town. But I do appreciate your help of exterminating them nonetheless."

"Oh I was simply in the neighborhood when they showed up and I know how much trouble they could be. Especially that big one."

 **-Yesterday-**

Having used the excuse of using the bathroom Uryu quickly goes into action even having felt the presence of a hollow. The slim teen leaves school grounds without detection as he goes into the streets of Karakura following the presence of the hollow.

Reaching a vacant lot Uryu spots the hollow. The large creature has the appearance of a large gorilla with thick dark fur and with the mask having the appearance of a tribal mask with long horns on top and tusks on both sides of the mouth area. But once the large beast like hollow spots Uryu it quickly begins to pound on its chest and charge right at him.

"Simple enough." bringing out his Heilig Bogen Uryu quickly disposes of the large hollow with only five arrows hitting right on the mask, shattering it killing the hollow instantly.

"Well that was easy." says the teen as he puts away his spirit weapon and begins to walk back to school but suddenly a Garganta opens and Uryu felt a large presence behind him.

Uryu looks over his shoulder and he can see a large swarm of hollows coming out of the Garganta. Without hesitation Uryu quickly brings out his bow and begins to fire a large collection of arrows.

Just as the arrows hit the targets more hollows continue to come out of the portal. But suddenly a large lightning bolt hits several of the hollows killing them all in one shot.

The one responsible was Akeno with her devil wings spread out of her back as she flies and lands next to Uryu. "Need a hand?" says Akeno with a smile

"Yes, if it means finishing this quickly," says Uryu as both he and Akeno begin their combined assault of spirit arrows and lightning bolts destroying all of the hollows that came out of the Garganta.

"That was easy," says Akeno before a loud roar and coming out of the Garganta a tall black hollow with a white mask with a pointed nose and spikes around its neck. A Gillian appears before them with another collection of hollows coming out as well.

"This could take a bit," says Uryu preparing his bow and creates an arrow while Akeno flies and lands next to him with a lightning bolt on hand and ready to fire.

 **-Present Day-**

"Yes, it did look bad and it took a lot longer than I wanted it to be," says Uryu since by the time the whole battle was over school has ended and when he got back the same teacher caught him and got a scolding for ditching class. It wasn't his best day.

"But at least with our combined power we got the job done." says Akeno as she continues to hover while keeping her distance from Uryu.

"Maybe, shall we continue?" says the Quincy as he creates another arrow.

"Sure." says Akeno with a smile as the two continue with their sparring.

On the left side of the training grounds, Issei is breathing heavily having been dodging and counterattacking Kisuke and his Benihime zanpakuto using his boosted gear.

"Now, scream! Benihime! Shouts Urahara unleashing another red beam from his zanpakuto.

 **BOOST!**

"Crap! Not enough time."Issei having to dodge the attack as he was unable to fully charge his boosted gear in time.

"Ca….ha..can..ha….I...ha….take...a...ha….break yet?" says Issei on his back breathing heavily catching his breath having been moved around the area so much.

"Not with that attitude, my perverted-minded pupil." says Kisuke in a sing-song voice while holding his fan covering his face hiding his smile while holding Benihime with his other hand.

"Oh come on man! We've been at this since this morning." cried Issei as he tries to get back on his shaking feet still feeling the fatigue of constant dodging and countering Urahara's attacks.

"Well I did say that I was going to be working you down to the bone." says Kisuke with a grin while wielding his zanpakuto.

"Yeah, that's before realizing that you're too fast and too strong for me to take on. The best I could do is to dodge or counter your attacks. So come on and cut me some slack for once!" says the young teen gaining the strength to get back on his feet but he still feels fatigued.

Before Urahara could answer, his messenger device buzzed alerting Kisuke as he puts away his fan and then takes it out of his pocket. It was a text message from Ururu telling him that there is a call for him and it was important.

"Hmmm well I suppose I can let you rest for a while." says Urahara as he takes his zanpakuto and has it return to its cane form.

"Alright!"

"But in half an hour if I'm not back by then I'd like you to spar with….hmmm….spar with Ichigo."

"Huh? Ichigo? But the guy is way over there meditating. He's been like that for more than an hour."

"True, but I'm sure he'll be back to our reality soon." says Kisuke as he walks back to the stairway that leads back up to his shop.

"Or better yet, leave the kid to me, I mean really Kisuke who knows how long Ichigo will take," Yoruichi says as she comes over to them.

"Don't you have enough on your plate as it is?" says Kisuke pointing out that Yoruichi was overseeing everyone's training.

"Nah, everybody is doing what they're supposed to be doing, I can do one more." says Yoruichi with Issei quickly drooling over her beauty.

"If you say so," says Kisuke as he leaves her with Issei

"Alright Issei, first we-ah." Yoruichi stops mid-sentence as Issei is having another one of his perverted episodes with a face to match while his eyes scan Yoruichi's figure from top to bottom.

"He's no Ichigo, that's for sure." mumbles the flash goddess as she flashes steps next to Issei and without warning, sucker punches him snapping out his perverted daydream.

"Ouch! Hey I wasn't ready," says Issei rubbing the sour spot where Yoruichi hit him.

"Well tough potatoes, if you space out like that you just leave yourself wide open for an attack. The first rule of battle, never let your guard down," says Yoruichi as she puts her hands on her waist as she sees Issei still rubbing his cheek.

"Yeah, gotcha." says Issei as he gets back up to his feet.

"Here." Yoruichi tosses a water bottle to Issei which the teen was quick to catch.

"Thanks." says the teen as he begins drinking.

"Before we start, just take a thirty-minute break like Kisuke says and then I want to see what that red gear of yours is all about."

"You got it." Issei opens the bottled water and begins to drink.

On the far side of the training grounds far away from the rest, Ichigo is sitting on a large slab of rock with Zangetsu resting in front of him. After practicing his swings with his Zangetsu for an hour the substitute soul reaper then sits down, cross his legs, close his eyes and meditates to calm his mind and once he does that.

 **-Ichigo's Inner World-**

Once he opens his eyes Ichigo is no longer in Urahara's training grounds but instead, he finds himself standing on the side of a tall building and unlike before the place isn't underwater. He looks around and he could see other tall buildings and a clear blue sky with a few clouds here and there.

But he's not here for the scenery. He begins to look around to see if he could find Zangetsu but he doesn't know how he would look like since the last time they saw each other he and his inner hollow were fused as one.

Ichigo walks on the side of the building and eventually reaching the edge of it and all he could see is a black void below the buildings. He looks to the other side and thought about jumping to the other building but after looking down again he quickly shakes the idea since he doesn't want to risk of falling into the abyss and probably be back in the real world.

"Hello, Ichigo."

Ichigo quickly looks over his shoulder and there he was. A tall, lean-built, and stoic middle-aged man. He has pale skin, high cheekbones, stubble, and long ragged black hair with brown highlights. His attire consists of a tattered white dress shirt with an upturned collar and cuffs, black pants, low-heeled boots, and a long, amorphous black overcoat with a burgundy highlight that flares out into ragged ends. He also wears a brown-tinted, semi-transparent wraparound sunglasses.

"Old man Zangetsu." There was no mistaking it in front of Ichigo is his Zanpakuto spirit how he originally was before being fused with his inner hollow….speaking of which.

"Wait, if you're here. Where is he?" Ichigo asks asking about his inner hollow.

"I'm not sure, I've yet to see him but I can still feel his presence in this place." says Zangetsu.

"I see." Ichigo begins to feel his inner hollow's presence but where exactly is he is anyone's guess. Still, he can't help but worry that his inner hollow would pull any of his stunts.

"I'm sure he will show himself in time, but for now I ask. What brings you here, Ichigo?" says the tall dark man remaining serious as ever.

"I just came here to see how things are in here, but I guess when my powers were restored I guess this place just went back to normal."

"That's correct, when your friend released the reishi into your soul, it was able to restore your inner world. Granted since the reishi belongs to others that you call comrades, it somewhat changed this place but nothing too drastic."

"You mean the collection of new buildings?"

"Yes, mostly that but I'm sure you didn't just come here to just talk about that. Right?"

"Yeah Kisuke told me I need to learn to control my power and I figured who else that can help me with that but you."

"I see, very well. If you really want to learn to fully control your spiritual power you must face me head on if you dare," says Zangetsu as the spirit summons his weapon counterpart and waits for Ichigo to make the first move.

"Alright then." Ichigo then draws his weapon and quickly charges at the old man beginning his training to fully control his powers.

 **-Urahara's Training Grounds-**

 **11:30 A.M.**

Meanwhile, as Kisuke returns to the shop above he sees Tatsuki practicing her karate using a training dummy that with a closer look one can see it wearing what looks like a crude drawing of Riser's face taped on the dummy as the girl keeps punching and kicking the dummy relentlessly.

Kisuke watches Tatsuki until she stops and grabs her water bottle. Seeing an opportunity to speak with her Kisuke approaches her. "Pardon me, Ms. Tatsuki. Do you have a minute to speak?"

"Yeah? What's up?" Tatsuki says after taking a few gulps of water after the workout she did as she walks over to Kisuke with the man himself giving her a small towel to dry off her sweat from her forehead.

"Ms. Tatsuki, I don't think it's wise for you to join in on the upcoming battle."

"Wait, what!? Why not!?" Tatsuki says loudly in anger.

"To put it simply, you have no offensive abilities to speak off, aside from being resistant to reiatsu, being spiritually aware, high endurance which is always a plus and let's not forget the obvious expert level karate that you possess. But I fear that alone won't be enough."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Tatsuki says in an annoyed tone.

"Before I would answer that, tell me Miss Tatsuki. Why did you join Rias in her endeavor to break the marriage? You two only knew each other for a few days at best, or is there another reason that you want to do this?."

"..." Tatsuki looks at the ground unable to use the right words to answer Kisuke.

"Is it because of what happened a few years back?" Kisuke asks and this time Tatsuki looks up at him even without saying a word Kisuke got his answer. But Tatsuki gathers her words and speaks to him honestly.

"Sorta…you see, ever since Ichigo got his powers for the first time I felt like we were drifting apart. At first, I thought nothing of it thinking he was just being moody. But when Orihime got taken during the whole war thing against Aizen and Ichigo then just plain tells me that it's none of my business. I mean how am I going to react to that?!"

"Mhm."

"Hell, I punched him in the face so hard that I bashed his back side of his head against the window and breaking it."

"I see."

"I just….what I'm trying to say is that I don't want to be left behind and let Ichigo do everything. I mean yeah he has help but I want to help him too. I mean, me and him have a history for crying out loud, that should mean something…..I just want to fight by his side and have him know that I will always be there when he's in a bind."

"Hmmm...I see I can understand your situation…..come with me I might have something in my shop that can help you with your dilemma and might assist you in the upcoming fight."

"Really!? Thanks, Mr. Urahara!"

"Don't thank me just yet, I just need to make sure it works first." says Kisuke as he and Tatsuki following him head back up to the shop.

Meanwhile, close to by to Uryu and Akeno's sparring Chad and Koneko are exchanging punches and kicks.

"You're a lot stronger than I expected," says Chad as Koneko delivers a powerful punch hitting his Brazo Derecho del Gigante in its shield form. The force of Koneko's punch was enough to push Chad back but only a few meters.

"And you're a lot tougher than I thought, most would go down with just a few of my punches," says Koneko as she and Chad have been

"Yeah, I can feel it. You got a lot of power, but whatever you throw at me I can take it," says Chad as the large teen then fires another El Directo at Koneko only for the young teen to quickly move out of the way and dash towards the tall teen and delivers a collection of punches and kicks with Chad blocking most of them.

Once Koneko stops her barrage of attacks she looks over to Chad with her usual stone face look. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why do all of this to help us, exactly? We barely know each other from a hole in the ground," says Koneko with her expression remaining the same as ever.

"Well...it may be true that I might not know much about Rias or the rest of you, but if Ichigo is willing to help her then I will do the same." says Chad answering Koneko's question.

"So in a way, he's your King, like how Rias's is ours," says Koneko

"Uh...yeah, but it's more just being a loyal friend and that we made a promise a long time ago." Chad isn't familiar with the peerage business but in a way, he does understand where Koneko comes from.

"Oh….so wanna take a break? The timer of our spar ended a few minutes ago."

"Yeah, sure."

Meanwhile, close to the stairway, Asia practices her defensive magic by creating a barrier similar to Orihime's while Rias teaching her more defensive magic while Rukia would fire her kido spells at her to test their endurance. Orihime herself would coach Asia, helping her and giving her tips on how to create different forms of barriers including one with spikes on the outside.

"Ok I'm ready!" says Asia as the girl through concentration and using her magic creates a wide emerald-colored barrier as she prepares to take Rukia's kido attack.

"Alright, here I go, Hadō #33. Sōkatsui!" Rukia fires a small stream of blue energy at Asia's barrier.

"Ngh!" Asia's barrier begins to crack but with her magic Asia manages to restore the barrier and successfully blocking Rukia's kido spell.

"Very good Asia, but now let's see how much it can take. Rukia if you will," says Rias

"Gotcha, Hadō #33. Sōkatsui!" Rukia fires another stream of blue energy this time with more power behind it.

As the kido spell hits Asia's barrier she's feeling the pressure as her barrier begins to crack in several spots while being under the strain of Rukia's kido attack.

"Don't give up Asia, you can do it!" says Orihime cheering Asia on.

Asia can feel the fatigue setting in while her magic barrier continues to crack more and more but she won't submit as she increases her magic barrier to the highest she could muster eventually restoring and repairing her cracking barrier.

"There we go!" says Orihime with joy.

"I knew she could do it." says Rias with pride in her bishop.

At this point, Rukia's Sōkatsui has stopped to which Asia dispels her barrier and falls on her rear on the ground breathing heavily.

"You did great Asia!" says Orihime going over to Asia with Rukia and Rias close behind.

"Hah...hah...haah….thanks." Asia getting up on her feet with the help of Orihime.

"I was a little worried that your barrier was going to break by my kido. But you pulled through," says Rukia being impressed by Asia.

"Ye-yeah….can..can I take a break..please?" Asia asks still breathing heavily after all of that.

"Of course, Asia you've earned it," Rias says going over to a small fridge that's under the stairway and gives Asia a bottle of water.

"Thanks." says Asia as she sits on a large flat stone taking a break with Orihime sitting next to her and having a conversation.

As the two girls talk Rukia would look over to Asia and then turns her attention to Rias and walks over to her "Rias."

"Yes, Rukia."

"I've been thinking since Asia is good with magic. I wonder if it's possible to teach her offensive magic."

"Hmmm….what brought this up?"

"From what I've seen she's very good with magic and with the battle ahead of us, I feel she could learn a few attack spells."

"Hmm...that is true but the thing is Asia is not one to hurt someone intentionally, she's similar to Orihime to that regard."

"True, but even Orihime has her own special attacks with her powers."

"That maybe so but I do plan on keeping both of them next to me during the battle."

"So I take it you're already making plans for the fight."

"Considering what we're up against, I have to. Even with the rest of you joining the battle and with the following days of training, there's no telling what Raiser has up his sleeves not to mention where the battle might take place."

"I see,"

 **-Ichigo's Inner World-**

What felt like a few hours have passed in the real world. In Ichigo's inner world it felt like days have passed by as the building that both Ichigo and Zangetsu is torn to shreds as they been fighting nonstop.

Ichigo can feel the exhaustion setting in having been fighting his zanpakuto spirit for a long time. But during their fight, Ichigo little by little relearns to control his power and attack and now he feels that he's finally got a hang of his powers again.

Sensing this as well Zangetsu stops fighting and dismisses his weapon counterpart. "I see that you have regained control. But I fear this is only the beginning."

"Yeah, I figured. I've still had yet to use my bankai." says the orange-haired substitute soul reaper.

"Yes, but for now we are done for today. As you can see your inner world needs repairs." Zangetsu shows Ichigo the amount of damage that they have done to the place."

"Damn….I take it this could take a while to fix."

"Not really, just give it a day and the inner world should return to normal."

"Alright, but before I leave...I can still feel 'his' presence."

"As do I, 'he' must be up to something. But for now, return to your world and let me worry about him for the time being." says the old man zanpakuto spirit.

"...Alright I'll leave 'him' to you, later." says Ichigo hesitant at first to leave but seeing Zangetsu's always calm attitude gives him a sense of security as he closes his eyes.

 **-Back in Urahara's Training Ground-**

Ichigo opens his eyes and he can hear his friends sparring and training among themselves. He tries to get up but his legs are asleep for being in that crossed position all this time. He checked the time on his cellphone and it was already 3 pm.

"Oh, you're back."

Ichigo looks over and sees Rias standing in front of him. "Oh hey."

"So how did it go? Have you found enlightenment?" says Rias jokingly

"Ha, you're hilarious," says Ichigo sarcastically as he slowly gets to his feet and stretches for a bit before returning to his normal body that was lying next to him by a few feet.

"So I take it you got control of your powers?" says Rias

"Sort've there's still much I have to do," says Ichigo as the two teens head back to join the others.

"I see, but at least you have the next seven days to be fully ready," Rias says with a smile.

"Yeah...have you been waiting for me to come back?" Ichigo asks wondering if Rias was just sitting there waiting for him to return.

"Ah no, I mean I was...just a little worried that you took so long is all." says Rias as she tries to hide her blush from Ichigo.

"Well...if you say so." says Ichigo as the two return with the rest as Kiba is currently sparring with Uryu while Akeno fights with Renji.

"I see they're having fun."

"It's good for everyone to know each other's fighting styles and techniques," says Rias

Ichigo looks around and notices that Tatsuki isn't around. "Hey, where did Tatsuki go?"

 **-Inside Urahara Shop Storage Room-**

After answering and speaking with the person in the phone call, Kisuke takes Tatsuki to the storage and shows her one of his many inventions. "So what exactly is this thing," says Tatsuki as she looks at a box with a white orb inside.

"You could say it was an old device that I made a few years back. It supposed to help those have a better control of their spirit energy. I think this will be perfect for you."

"Sooo…..what am I supposed to do with this?" says Tatsuki as she takes the orb in her hands and immediately she can feel some sort of energy swirling around inside.

"Wha-what's this?"

"That would be your spirit energy and by the looks of it, you possess a lot of it. For the time being, I want you to use this to concentrate your spiritual power inside the orb and once you reach that point, take control of it."

"But what am I supposed to do with it when I control it?"

"Hmmm...well you could always shoot it like a projectile attack like in those popular fighting games in arcades." says Kisuke with a cheery attitude while holding his fan again covering his grinning face with Tatsuki just looking at him with a not believing face.

"Oh come now Ms. Tatsuki, have I ever mislead anyone?...Don't answer that," says Kisuke quickly covering more of his face with his fan.

Tatsuki looks at the orb and looks back at Kisuke and after thinking for a few minutes. "Alright I'll try it out, who knows? This thing could give me the edge I needed."

"That's the spirit and feel free to take it home with you, think of it as extra homework," Kisuke says in a happy tone.

"Yeah, like I don't have enough on my plate. But you know thanks again," says Tatsuki as she puts the orb back in the squared box and heads back down to the underground chamber.

"You're welcome and don't mention it," say Kisuke

 **-Somewhere in The Underworld-**

Meanwhile in an old colosseum deep in the underworld just as Rias and the gang are training Riser and his peerage are training as well with the blonde himself overlooking his peerage training.

"Keep at it! Not once should you ever give leniency to your foes in battle," says Riser as he watches his peerages fighting each other as if they are willing to take each other's lives.

The two maids Marion and Bürent fight each other in hand to hand combat while the chainsaw wielding twins Ile and Nel fight the twin catgirls Ni and Li.

Mira and Shuriya fight it out using their respective abilities as Isabela and Xuelan go fist to fist with each other exchanging blows with their respective martial arts. Finally Yubelluna and Mihae battle using their respective magic.

Ravel then flies over to her brother and lands next to him. "Don't you think this is a bit overboard? I mean this battle shouldn't be that hard if all we have to worry about is a rag tag bunch that Rias slapped together."

"Don't be so sure Ravel, even what you say is true it doesn't mean we can't be ready for what's to come. Not to mention we have plenty of Phoenix potions to fully heal ourselves," says Riser with an arrogant tone.

Ravel just looks at her brother and then turns her attention to the fight between Karlamine and Siris going sword to sword. "I still don't understand why to go this far if we're going to win anyway?"

"Then you don't need to, for me, it's making sure that victory and the hand of Rias Gremory are mine completely and when I defeat that orange-haired peasant that defied me I will scorch him until he's nothing but ash!" Using his pyrokinetic powers Riser fires a powerful fireball hitting a dummy and reducing it to a pile of ashes.

"Yes...he will burn for his defiance...Hahahahahaha!"

 **To be Continued!**

 **Ending Theme - Roundabout by Yes**

 **(A/N: Yes I added the first ending theme from 2011's Jojo's Bizzare Adventure, I feel that it fits very well with this fic and maybe making it a thing plus it's super catchy and that ending though. ;)**

 **But now to answer the questions made in the review section. 1st to** Matemeo **: For now as you can see Team Riser is training hard and not planning to lose this battle. For your second question, the whole Rias vs. Adjucha thing was just ill advised and just a mistake on my part as I thought that the bleach universe was stronger than the HDxD universe. Heck, two of my friends who fully know both series royally chewed me out for having Rias lose to a hollow, so as of now Rias is stronger than how she was in the beginning. Plus I think Ichigo vs. Riser can go either way ;) I won't say more about that.**

 **For AJ: I've been debating with myself about adding both Shinji and Hiyori and ultimately cut them from the battle, but it doesn't mean they are out of the story completely as they will show in season 2 in the Excalibur Hunt and Kokabiel fight.**

 **For SomethingAncient: I believe we already talked about this if not I will say that I have fixed the issue of Tatsuki's reasons for joining in this chapter as you might have already read. Plus it's not like I'm going to throw her in a den of lions bare-handed and have given her something that can give her an edge and a little shout to a certain fighting game series. And if Issei does count as 8 pieces he's still one person. Plus and I probably already said this to you but politics is never my strong suit and I didn't consider them in my planning for the story.**

 **For REQUIEMCROSS: Yhwach nor the 1000 Year Blood War Arc will be in this story since he's just too overpowered as I said it before and Ichigo only has his Soul Reaper and Hollow powers** **that's it.**

 **So yeah, sadly Shinji and Hyori will not be participating in the fight after debating with myself and asking a few of my friends I decided that Rias's team is fine as it is. So yeah! Next time the gang continues their training and having a day to relax and prepare for the battle for Rias's freedom.**

 **Last thing and I'm very glad that so many people keep favoriting and following my story it means a lot. Please leave a review to know if you guys like the chapter as I always say that your reviews keeps me motivated and keep continuing till the grand finale which won't be coming for a loooong time. So til next time ladies and gentlemen, Later.)**

 **(The Devil and The Reaper** **is written and edited by Alpha Espada. Please support the official release of both series used in this crossover.)**


	8. Last Day to Train, Calm Before The Storm

**(A/N: Would you all believe me that during writing this chapter I struggled a lot trying to come up with the story. But thanks to a number of things including background music I finally got this chapter done. So without further ado here's a brand new chapter of The Devil and The Reaper, hope you guys enjoy it. )**

 **-Urahara Shop-**

 **Day 7, 2:47 P.M.**

The following week has been long and grueling with everybody pushing themselves to new levels. Issei especially having been training under both Yoruichi and Kisuke. All the while Rias spends her time planning for the battle ahead studying both Riser's and her own team's strengths and weaknesses and figuring out the best way to come out of this as the victor with every so often she would spar with Akeno in case she had to fight herself.

Currently, she is in one of the rooms in the shop as her table is filled with stacks of papers while on her right side there is a trash can that is filled up with scrunched up balls of paper with of them on the floor.

Akeno steps into the room and sees the mess that her best friend. "I see that you're working hard."

"Yeah, but the hard part is wondering where the battle would take place," Rias says as she draws up another strategy on another sheet of paper.

"Didn't you try asking your brother or Grayfia?" Akeno asks as she watches Rias working.

"No, if I go to them for help, then I'll never hear the end of it," Rias replies as keeps her eyes on her work.

"Good point." Akeno picks up the balls of paper and throws them in another small trash bin.

"But then again this won't be a normal rating game," Rias says looking up at Akeno

"You know you could just have Ichigo take on Riser's team and we would win easily." Akeno jokingly

"Don't even joke about that, I can't rely on Ichigo to do everything in this battle. Especially since everyone is willing to give their all especially after the last several days." Rias looks back down and continues to work.

"My apologies, I was trying to cheer you up since you spent the last few days planning. Not to mention you really look stressed out." Akeno being concerned for her friend.

"I know, but so far most of the strategies I came up with are either hits or misses but I guess I might be over thinking about this. Honestly, I could use a breather." Rias says as she stands up from the table and walks out of the room with Akeno.

"I'm sure you would but I guess that's one way to say you want to see Ichigo again." Akeno teasing Rias.

"Oh hush."

 **-Urahara Training Grounds-**

Meanwhile, Asia continues to work on her healing and defensive magic with the assistance of Orihime and Chad.

"El Directo!" shouts Chad as he slams his fist against Asia's barrier with the young teen holding her own.

"Ngh, I..can't...no I won't give in!" Asia increases her defensive barrier as Chad press on with his attack while Orihime watches from the sidelines.

"She's doing a lot better and she's not struggling like on the first day."

Asia continues to concentrate as she increases her defensive power eventually outlasting Chad's attack.

"Hm, not bad," says Chad

"Thank you," Asia says with a smile

"That was great Asia you're doing so well." Orihime praising Asia

"Well, I do have you and Rukia to thank for supporting me Orihime." Asia being humble but at the same time blushing by Orihime's praise and encouragement.

On the other side of the training grounds Kiba spars with Rukia as the two go sword to sword with Kiba using his Sword Birth to create a two handed longsword as Rukia comes down on him with her zanpakuto, Sode no Shirayuki.

"You soul reaper folk are quite the interesting bunch," Kiba says as he pushes Rukia back and attacks her with a swing of his longsword only for the petite soul reaper to dodge and shoots a low-level kido spell at the blonde knight.

"We're not all that special, I mean every soul reaper in the soul society has their own zanpakuto. No two zanpakuto are the same." Rukia explaining to Kiba.

"Makes me want to pay a visit someday." Kiba comes at Rukia with several swings with his sword.

"Well, you probably have to have special permission or face one of the four great Seireimon gatekeepers," Rukia replies as she either blocks or evades Kiba's swings while fighting back with her own strikes.

"I take it they won't let just anyone in," Kiba says as he crosses swords with Rukia as the petite soul reaper pushes him back a little.

"Yup, but I could put a good word for you. You are quite talented with your swords, not to mention your Sword Birth is really something else." Rukia says with a grin as she delivers a kick to Kiba's stomach pushing him back.

"Thank you for your praise Ms. Rukia." Kiba quickly regains his balance as he uses his sword birth to switch out his long sword to a pair of short swords as he quickly dash towards Rukia

"Oh please, flattery is nice. But too bad it would take you nowhere!" Rukia prepares for Kiba's attack as the blonde knight comes down to her with his two swords firmly in his hands.

On the far left in the training grounds where there are a collection of large boulders Koneko is sparring with Yoruichi at the young girl's request. Koneko delivers a collection of punches towards Yoruichi only for the goddess of flash to block and evade most of them with ease.

"You got a long way to go young kitten," says Yoruichi teasing Koneko

"Shut it!" Koneko says as she swings her kick high to hit Yoruichi's head only for the older woman to block it and push it away.

"You got a lot of power kid, but that you have to do more than just that," Yoruichi says with a smile as she can't help but be reminded of her days training Soi-fon.

"So I've been told." Koneko lunges at Yoruichi and swiftly throws another collection of punches with Yoruichi once again blocking and catching each of her punches before grabbing her right fist and sends the young girl flying over her shoulder but Koneko was quick to land on her feet and quickly dash towards Yoruichi and throws a kick at her.

But the flash goddess was quick to react and grabs Koneko's leg and tosses her to the opposite side but like before Koneko lands on her feet.

"My my, looks like my little kitten can land on her feet no problem." says Yoruichi making Koneko groan by the nickname that Yoruichi keeps calling her.

"Stop calling me that." Koneko getting annoyed by Yoruichi's nickname for the white-haired girl.

"Oh come on I think it's cute and it does suit you." Yoruichi continues to tease Koneko.

"No," Koneko says plainly

"Aww, you're no fun." Yoruichi chuckles a little.

"Less talking more fighting." Konko quickly rushes towards Yoruichi with the older woman being prepared to face her 'kitten' head on.

"If that's what you want." As Koneko and Yoruichi keep sparring with each other the rest of the group goes on with their own training especially since this is the last day before tomorrow where they would take the day to relax and rest before the battle.

Tatsuki sitting under one of the trees that are scattered all over the area as she continues to concentrate with the spirit sphere. For the last six days aside her practicing her karate the young woman is doing what Urahara instructed her with her spiritual energy, she even practiced while at home in her room. Mostly doing concentrations and controlling her spiritual power. During her training, Kisuke suggested firing her spiritual spheres like a special attack. Tatsuki attempted it a few times but the attack normally dissipates before reaching her intended target.

Now she is at the moment in a calm state of mind as her spiritual energy calmly swirls inside the sphere.

"I see that you have improved in the last few days," says Kisuke as he walks over to Tatsuki

"Yeah, it was a little wonky at first but I got the hang of it," Tatsuki says opening one of her eyes as she looks up at Kisuke.

"Have you try forming your spiritual energy without using the sphere?" Kisuke asks as he looks at the sphere that Tatsuki is holding and he could already feel the spirit energy that is inside of it.

"I've been working on it, I can make a spirit ball but it normally would reduce to nothing before hitting my targets. But I came up with an idea." Tatsuki puts down the sphere as she gets on her two feet and walks over to one of the training dummies.

"Oh?" Kisuke smiling as he anticipates on what Tatsuki would do.

"Watch!" Tatsuki places the sphere on the ground as she concentrates on her fists and suddenly her fist are covered in bluish flame-like spirit energy.

"Well, that's a neat trick," Kisuke says in a jolly tone in his voice.

"Oh but you haven't seen the best part." Tatsuki then looks over to a practice dummy and runs towards it with both of her fists still enveloped in their spiritual flames as Tatsuki reaches the dummy she hits it a jumping uppercut in which she spins upwards getting engulfed by her spiritual power while the dummy is taking massive damage.

 _"SHO-RYU-KEN!"_ Tatsuki shouts her attack name as the training dummy gets destroyed entirely by the attack.

"Ooooh, nice form, and very flashy," Kisuke says as he gives Tatsuki a small golf clap.

"Yeah, I may not be able to fire spirit balls yet but with this I know I can keep up with the rest."

"That's the spirit, but for tomorrow I do agree with Rias and advice to take it easy for the day after." Kisuke then begins to head back to the shop.

"Yeah, I know….and Mr. Urahara." Tatsuki calls out to Kisuke.

"Yes, Ms. Tatsuki?" Kisuke looks over his shoulder to Tatsuki.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it, Ms. Tatsuki doesn't mention it," Kisuke says with a smile as he continues to head back to the shop upstairs.

During the week Ichigo spends a few hours in his inner world sparring and training with Old Man Zangetsu as he grows more and more confidence in fully controlling his powers. While in the real world he would be practicing his sword swings and doing sword forms with his Zangetsu that Urahara provided during the week.

But at the moment Ichigo is taking a break as he takes one of the juice boxes that Orihime brought for everyone and he picked the apple juice one. He was sipping away when Issei walks towards him.

"Hey Ichigo, got a minute."

"What's up?" Ichigo looking over at the young teen.

"Is it ok if I spar with you?" says Issei as he brings out his sacred gear

"Sure about that?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow at Issei as he finishes his juice as he turns to Issei.

"Yeah for the last week I've been sparring with almost everybody and since we haven't sparred I figure now would be a good chance as any. Plus I feel a lot stronger than before the whole training thing. I feel like I can take on the world." Issei says with confidence and excitement.

"Welp, if you really want to, let's go." Ichigo walks towards the training ground with Issei following close behind.

The two face each other with Ichigo already has Zangetsu drawn while Issei has his sacred gear active with a small distance in between them.

"Don't be surprised when I show how strong I've gotten!" Issei exclaims as he raises his boosted gear high.

 **BOOST!**

"Alright let's see what you got." Ichigo remains in his current position letting Issei make the first move.

"Here I come!" Issei quickly dashes towards Ichigo as his boosted gear glows the second time.

 **BOOST!**

Ichigo quickly goes to the defense as Issei throws a punch with his sacred gear hand at him only for the substitute soul reaper blocking it with the wide side of Zangetsu.

 **BOOST!**

After the third boost, Issei quickly backs away from Ichigo and points his boosted gear as it is resonating with powerful energy.

"Now take this DRAGON SHOT!" Issei fires his attack at Ichigo with the older teen remaining calm as the attack zeros in on him. As the attack lands a large explosion was made by it.

"Ah crap!" Issei covers with his arms as the smoke and debris from his attack hit him.

 **-Kisuke's Office-**

As Kisuke was handling data on his computer he feels the rumbling of the explosion that is below his shop.

"Hmmm…..it's probably nothing, now where is that document?" Shrugs off the explosion as he continues to look around on his computer for his missing document.

 **-Urahara Training Ground-**

As the smoke clears Issei quickly looks around for Ichigo only there was no sign of him.

"Oh crap! I think I evaporated him! Ichigo I'm sorry!" Issei cries as he drops on his knees thinking that his attack actually killed Ichigo.

"Hey, I'm right behind you."

Issei hearing Ichigo's voice and as he turns around he stops halfway when he finds the sharp blade side of Zangetsu resting on his shoulder.

"Ichigo!? But how? I though-

"I'm just really fast, so are you going to surrender?" Ichigo asks as he has Issei pinned with Zangetsu

"Ye-yeah sure, you win!" Issei says quickly as Ichigo brings Zangetsu off of Issei's shoulder and have its backside rest on his own shoulder.

"Wow, I guess I have a long ways to go."

"I wouldn't say that I mean that attack of yours really packs a mean punch. If I hadn't moved out of the way, I probably would have taken some damage." Ichigo says and he stabs Zangetsu into the ground.

"Really...damn I didn't expect my attack to be this strong, I guess all this training really did pay off. I guess there was a point of Mr. Urahara constantly pushing me to my limits and using me as a guinea pig."

"Yeeeaaaah, I better check the last one if I were you." Ichigo with an uneasy look on his face.

"Why?" Issei asks wondering what Ichigo meant by that.

"Just trust me, if I knew that crazy nut long enough and unfortunately I do. I suggest that you check that all of your organs are in place." Ichigo answers as he goes back to the small fridge and takes out a bottle of water.

 **-Next Day, Gremory Villa-**

Today under Rias's orders there was no training as everyone was given the day to fully rest up before tomorrow is a big day ahead of them. Currently, everyone was arriving in one of the Gremory Villas thanks to Rias and her teleportation magic.

"Wow Rias, this place is beautiful!" Orihime says as she is amazed by the beauty of the villa as she begins to explore the place.

"No kidding this place looks like one of those super fancy hotels," Tatsuki says as she looks around inside.

"Yeah, you're right." Ichigo looks around being impressed by what he sees.

"It's really nothing special this is one of the many villas that my family owns," Rias says as she shows everyone around including the rooms that they would be staying.

For the rest of the day, everyone was relaxing and even having fun in the swimming pool in the backyard. When evening came around Orihime volunteered to make dinner with Asia assisting her and learning a few cooking tricks from Orihime. That night the whole gang had Orihime special Chocolate-covered Sushi and wasabi chicken with pepper and apple steaks and fried rice with sprinkles and it was actually good with Koneko asking seconds.

But as the day is slowly coming to an end, for Issei the teen started to get all kinds of nervous as he is in his room in the villa pacing back and forth with his mind asking over a hundred questions a minute.

It was already eleven o'clock and tomorrow is the rating battle. Issei couldn't sleep even after talking with Ichigo during dinner and while the talk helped the teen boost his confidence he still feels nervous and having the fear that he might fail everyone.

"Maybe taking a small walk can help me calm my nerves." Issei then steps out of his room and would walk around the estate eventually reaching the balcony area hoping that the night air would help him clear his thoughts.

"Wait is that?" Issei looks closer and sees Ichigo looking out at the night sky while resting against the balcony rails.

"Is he nervous too?" Issei thought as he was about to walk over to Ichigo until Rias steps out making Issei stop in his tracks while remaining hidden by the shadows of the night.

"I see you can't sleep either, are you anxious about tomorrow?" Rias asks in a low voice.

"Nah, after last week's training I believe that tomorrow, we will win this," Ichigo says as he looks over to Rias.

"Ichigo….I just want to thank you again. I don't know how I could repay you…..heh...I still remember when we first met. How you would just come to my aid without a second thought." Rias looks down for a bit as her cheeks blush a bit.

"Well..to be honest, it took a bit for me to put my foot down on those thugs," Ichigo says as he rests his elbows on the balcony bar.

"Heh,..you're right….Ichigo, I really am grateful that I met you." Rias looks up to Ichigo while coming closer to him.

"Don't forget that I'm not the only one helping you out," Ichigo says reminding Rias as the crimson-haired devil girl coming closer to him

"Yeah...how silly of me," Rias says as she rests her head against Ichigo's chest as the night wind blows her long beautiful crimson red hair.

"So what's up? You're kinda acting weird." Ichigo asks as he looks down on Rias with the girl being a few centimeters shorter than him.

"Nothing really, I'm just happy that I met you and that…."

Issei watches them but couldn't hear what they're saying until he sees Rias walking up to Ichigo and to his complete shock he sees Rias wrapping her arms around Ichigo's neck and kisses him. Before thinking Issei quickly goes back to his room only to bump into Asia in the hall knocking her down by accident.

"Ouch." Asia lands on her rear.

"Oh, Asia I'm sorry I didn't see you there." Issei quickly helps Asia up.

"It's ok Issei, it was an accident." Asia gets back on her feet with the help from Issei.

"Yeah, an accident...sure." Issei looks down after what he just witnessed.

"Issei..is there something the matter?" Asia asks as she noticed that something was troubling Issei.

Not wanting to make Asia worry Issei quickly dismisses it and quickly change the subject. "Wha-no no it's nothing just a bit nervous about tomorrow is all."

"Oh, I see, well you could say I feel the same way. But I know we'll do our best and we even have Ichigo and the rest to help us out." Asia says with a positive attitude and believing that they would come out on top.

"Ichigo...yeah." Issei looks down with a bitter look on his face.

"Huh? Issei did something happen?" Asia asks starting to worry about Issei.

"No, it's nothing Asia really. Well, I better call it a night before it gets too late, gotta need my beauty sleep...hahaha." Issei trying to laugh it off so not to worry Asia as he heads back to his room.

"Well… if you say so, good night Issei." Asia then heads to the bathroom.

"Night Asia." Issei closes the door to his room and once he's fully alone Issei falls on his hands and knees as the image of Rias kissing Ichigo appears in his mind while feeling a sharp pain in his heart.

"Rias….why?...why him?" Issei slams his fist against the floor while a small tear falls from his right eye. The teen then crawls to his bed and curls up in a ball as he slowly falls asleep.

 **-Issei's Dream-**

"Huh, where am I? Why am I wearing a suit?" Issei looks around and when he turns around he's in front of a church and in front of the entrance is Rias in a wedding dress.

"Huh...Rias!? Wha-what's going on? why are you wearing that?"

"I'm sorry Issei, but I just prefer guys with more potential, if I were to settle with someone of your level it would be sinking a new low, wouldn't you agree," Rias says coldly as she goes inside the church.

"Wait, Rias! Hold it!" Issei rushes into the church only to see everyone he knew was there including a large collection of faceless people filling out the place. On one side he sees Akeno, Kiba, Koneko and Asia, his classmates from Kuoh, the council president Sona Sitri and her peerage some of the teachers. While on the other side are Orihime, Chad, Uryu, Tatsuki, and Yoruichi with Mr. Urahara acting as the pastor of the ceremony.

"Wha-what's going on? Why's everyone here!?" Issei exclaims while being surprised to see everyone in the church.

"Don't you get it Issei….I'm getting married….and it's not to you," Rias says as she walks down the aisle with her groom waiting for her.

"Oh gross who would marry that loser pervert!?" says one of the students of his former school.

"Yeah like Rias deserves so much better!"

"Wait! Did we lose the rating battle!?" Issei says fearing that Rias would end up marrying Riser.

"Oh stupid Issei, of course, we won. Ichigo practically cleaned house on Riser and his peerage single-handedly. I very much doubt you could do that." Rias giving Issei a cold stare.

"Then...who are you marrying?" Issei asks as he falls on his knees unable to believe what's happening.

"Quit being an idiot, you're just embarrassing yourself more with your stupid questions," Ichigo says as he turns around wearing the groom outfit while giving Issei an annoyed glare.

"It's already bad enough that you lost the first fight by one of the weaker pawns," Ichigo says with a bitter and annoyed tone.

"Wai-but I don't remember fi-"

"Enough, Issei! In case it hasn't sunk in yet. You are nothing more but a pawn and you will never be good enough for me or anyone for that matter." Rias says harshly to Issei as both her and Ichigo look at each other and as they are about to kiss.

"N-o...please...Rias...that's not..that's not."

 **"OK, Enough of that! Wake Up you sad excuse of a pervert!"** says a loud booming voice shaking the church itself.

"Wait what-AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Before realizing it Issei falls into a dark void as his nightmare comes to an end.

 **-Issei's Inner World-**

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Ouph!...Ouch!" After falling for who knows how long Issei finally lands what looks like a large red and white chess board surrounded by fire and flames.

"Where in the world am I? I just want to wake up already!" Issei shouts in frustration slamming his fist on the floor.

 **"Can you shut up for one lousy minute!" From the fires a large red dragon emerges and as it spreads his wings and flies over to Issei landing in front of him.**

"Wait! Who are you!?" Issei falling on his rear as the dragon approaches him.

 **"You know exactly who I am, I've been living inside you this whole time." The dragon's emerald eyes glow as Issei's arm transforms into his sacred gear.**

"Wait you're my sacred gear?" Issei looks up at the dragon.

 **"Why ask a question when you know very well the answer! I tried speaking to you for some time but it looks like the only reason I could speak to you now is probably that you've gotten a lot stronger in the past week." The dragon says in his deep voice.**

"So what exactly do you want, Mr. Dragon in my head?"

 **"Two things, first to say hello since we will be fighting together from now on."**

"And then second?"

 **"I'm getting to that, the second is to forget what you saw."**

"What!?"

 **"Is there an echo in here? I want you to forget what you saw before rushing back to your room."**

"You mean...Rias and Ichigo's.."

 **"Yes that, you can't have that in your perverted mind especially tomorrow. If you really want to help her you must keep your head in the battle ahead. Remember that Issei!" The Dragon and the world around Issei slowly disappear within the powerful flames.**

"Wait! I still have more questions!" Issei shouts as the world around him is engulfed in flames.

 **-The Gremory Villa, 7:00 A.M.-**

"Issei wake up! It's time to get ready!" Asia says as she knocks on Issei's door.

Issei quickly wakes up in a cold sweat and sees that it's already morning with his clock telling him the time.

"Issei!"

"Yeah, Asia I'm up." Issei slowly gets up from his bed while looking at his left arm and remembering what the dragon had told him only for the image flash in his mind.

"...this is going to be a very long day."

 **To be Continued!**

 **Ending Theme - Roundabout by Yes**

 **(A/N: So yeah a lot has happened while writing this chapter from the grand finale of Samurai Jack** being **a mixed bag to the fact that next weekend I'll be going to Puerto Rico Comi-Con with my friends and releasing another fanfic Code: Digital-X-World. Not to mention being stuck on the dreaded first page for days while wondering how should I write this chapter. But hey I pulled an all-nighter making this chapter and hope that you guys enjoyed it. Going back to my digimon/code geass crossover this was something I've been planning since September of last year and now that the first chapter is out for the last few weeks it didn't get that much attention but then again it has only one chapter. I will be updating CDXW every now and again but I will be mostly concentrating on DnR since this is my most popular fic I've written so far. Next month will be the 1st year anniversary of this fic so huzzah for the first year milestone.**  
 **Now to tackle the reviews and questions: first, off we have treyalexander63917 with not one but three questions and I'll answer them in order.**  
 **1: Kokabiel will be a lot stronger than in the anime/manga especially since I have plans for him and some of his followers ;)**  
 **2\. Ok dude first off I already said it in the last chapter's A/N Ichigo will only have his Soul Reaper and Hollow powers and that's it. As for the rest of the quincies, that's still up for debate if I will add them or not but it all depends on when I finish with Season 3 and when Season 4 comes out. Lastly what in the heck made you think that Quincies automatically go to hell when they die!? O_o like seriously the heck man?**

 **3\. It is strictly IchigoXRias and other pairings like IsseiXAsia and maybe a few others it just depends if they fit together or not.**

 **TwiX Illusions: I'm just going to stick with the English prefixes since I don't 100% know the Japanese honorifics since I only know a few of them.**

 **HaremLover: No, Ichigo will not have a harem much less someone else's peerage, I already explained this few times already.**

 **Lightningblade49: Nelliel will have her moment just won't be for a long time.**

 **NS120121: While I would agree with you on the first parts of the DxD Universe not as strong as Bleach. But for the sake of the story, I would have to raise the strength of the character but it will depend on any given situation at hand while making sure that no one character is too overpowered.**

 **SpudyPotato: Oh trust me when I say that the upcoming fights will be ones to remember I will guarantee that.**

 **Daizuke: Lo siento pero Ichigo se va quedar con Rias.**

 **So with all of that being said Next, it's the start of the Rating Battle Arc as this will take around seven chapters or less depending on how each fight will turn out and the possibility of each fight being either one on one, tag team or two on one! And yes Ichigo vs. Riser will be the main event. So til next time guys it's currently 9 am and as I write this so I'm going to bed, Later!)**

 **(The Devil and The Reaper is written and edited by Alpha Espada. Please support the official release of both series used in this crossover.)**


	9. Rating Battle Begins, Fake Karakura Town

**(A/N:WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! First Year Anniversary of The Devil and The Reaper! YEAH! Rias: "But Mr. Writer the anniversary wouldn't be for another 3 days." Me: Yeah, that's true but I'm too excited to wait till Saturday to drop this chapter especially since it's the beginning of the Rating Battle of your team against Riser's Team. Rias: "True, but I'll guarantee that we will win!" Me: Maybe but hey I am the writer and editor to this story. Rias: "What does that mean?" Me: Sorry I can't say. Rias: "No you just won't say it." Me:...Enjoy the chapter folks!)**

It was morning and today is the day, after eight days of training everyone was getting ready for the first ever Rating Battle. Everyone are getting up and into their battle attires while doing final preparations before the battle against Riser and his peerage.

Rias was the first to come down from the stairs to the front floor of the Gremory villa as she wears her Kuoh school outfit, next is Ichigo in his soul reaper form as he left his human body in his room.

"Feeling ready?" Rias asks Ichigo

"Ready as I'll ever be," Ichigo replies as he along with Rias waits for the others.

"But is it really ok for me to leave my body here?" Ichigo asks in concern fearing that if someone finds his body while they're away would call police or something.

"Don't worry about it, this villa is not used as much. But for safety measures, I'm placing a magic lock to keep anyone from coming into the room." Rias says as she uses her magic to seal the door to Ichigo's room.

"And done."

"Thanks," Ichigo said feeling relieved

"You're welcome," Rias said with a smile.

Akeno was next as she comes in her traditional miko attire with a white haori with red accents, a red hakama, and a pair of zōri with white tabi.

"My, am I interrupting?" Akeno asks with her usual smile

"No Akeno, there's nothing to interrupt," Rias replies to her best friend as she sees her walking down the stairs.

"Aww...and here I was hoping to catch you two in the act." Akeno teases causing both Ichigo and Rias to blush a little with Ichigo quickly changing the subject.

"I didn't know you practice Shinto, Akeno," Ichigo said seeing Akeno with the outfit on for the first time.

"It's something I picked up from my mother," Akeno answered with her usual smile.

Orihime comes down wearing her white outfit that was given to her during the winter war by Aizen's subordinates and thanks to Uryu's expert level of sewing it looked new with a few changes mainly the skirt being shorter reaching only her knees as well as her cape being around the same length as the skirt.

"Morning," Orihime said with a cheery smile with Ichigo noticing of what she's wearing for today's battle.

"Hey, I didn't know you kept that," Ichigo said seeing the dress gives him a flashback of their time in Hueco Mundo.

"You could say I grew to like it and I had Uryu fix it for me," said Orihime as she looks down and shows the dress a little.

"I got to admit I do like the style of it," Rias said being interested and liked the dress that Orihime wears.

Speaking of Uryu, the slender-looking bespectacled teen is wearing his Quincy clothes with his bow and other quincy weapons at hand in a white bag and several small pouches around his waistband with Koneko following close behind him as she wears her school outfit and wearing a pair of fighting gloves courtesy of Yoruichi with Uryu adding kitty paws designs to them.

"Morning Uryu and thanks again for fixing this in such short notice," Orihime said thanking the Quincy as he comes down.

"You're welcome Orihime, but really it was no trouble at all," Uryu answered with pride of his expert level sewing as well as pushing up his glasses a bit.

"You really thought it was necessary to add these?" Koneko asked looking over to Uryu while showing the paw designs.

"I think they look cute!" Orihime chimes in on the conversation

"Actually Yoruichi requested to add them and she heavily insisted," Uryu replied while fixing his glasses a little.

"Of course she did," Koneko said in a deadpan tone.

"I see that we're not the last ones to come down," Kiba said as he was next and sports his Kuoh Academy outfit with Chad came down following the blonde and only wears his black jeans and purple tank top.

Asia comes down wearing her church outfit as she feels more comfortable wearing it instead of her school outfit.

"Oh Asia, you look so cute in that nun outfit," Orihime said as she goes over to Asia

"Well Thank you, I do feel more comfortable wearing this than anything else," Asia said as she twirls a bit showing Orihime the dress.

Next up is Tatsuki as she wears her old white gi with her black belt wrapped around her waist.

"Haaaaahh….it's been awhile since I used this old thing," Tatsuki said with pride wearing her gi.

"Is that the same one that you wore during that tournament a few years back?" Ichigo asked noticing the wear and tears of the gi but for the most part was in good shape.

"The very same, I feel this could give us some extra luck," Tatsuki answered with a grin as she beats her chest with her right fist.

"I'm not one for luck but if you think it would then go with it," Ichigo said being a little surprised that Tatsuki kept the old gi in good shape especially after so long.

Yoruichi slides down on the stair rail in her usual black and orange outfit and perfectly lands on her feet.

"Nailed it," Yoruichi said with a smirk

"What are you nine?" Ichigo asked thinking that the older woman would act her age.

"I have to admit that landing was in great form and very graceful, I'd give it a ten," Akeno said even having a small sign with the number ten written on it.

"I agree as well with a ten." Rias agreeing with her best friend as she pulls out her own small sign with the number ten written on it.

"The heck did they get those?" Ichigo asked in his thoughts wondering how they got those things.

"I'd say a five," Koneko said not being as impressed as Rias and Akeno

"Aww, my adoring fans," Yoruichi said in a joking matter tone as she gives a bow.

Both Rukia and Renji are next to come down while in their soul reaper uniforms.

"I take it that everybody is here then?" Rukia asked as she looks down to see almost everyone is ready.

"No, we're still missing Issei," Rias said answering Rukia's question as a few minutes go by with her and the rest wondering what's taking Issei.

"Hey Issei, you coming or what?!" Ichigo shouts up the stairs wondering if the young teen is coming or not.

"I'm coming, I'm coming geez!" Issei said in a rush as he comes down in his Kuoh Academy outfit. "Sorry, I'm late."

"What took you?" Ichigo looking at Issei as the younger teen reaches the main floor with the rest of the group.

"Nothing just had to make sure I have everything," Issei replied as he goes down to one knee to make sure his sneakers are tied and avoiding eye contact with Ichigo not wanting to be reminded of what happened last night.

"Good everyone's here, now let's get-

Before Rias could finish her sentence a circular portal appears before the group and a young bespectacled woman with a slim figure, black hair styled in a short bob cut and violet eyes appears with another young bespectacled woman with long straight black hair that extends all the way down to her knees, with split bangs and light brown eyes.

"Rias, it's been a while." the short haired girl said.

"Sona, Tsubaki. It's good to see you two." Rias said with a smile happy to see some old faces from Kuoh.

"So mind filling me in here?" Ichigo asking Kiba being next to him.

"That's Sona Sitri and her Queen Tsubaki Shinra, they run the student council back in our school." Kaiba quickly replied being quick to answer Ichigo's question.

"Oh," Ichigo said acknowledging the two girls.

"Didn't expect to see those two here, what gives?" Issei asked wondering why they are here.

"We came here to wish all luck for today's battle, and I see some new faces here," Sona said noticing Ichigo and the rest.

"Yes, but they're just new friends that I've met and sadly not part of my peerage, but the offer stands if anyone is interested," Rias said in a sing-song tone.

"We're good Rias," Ichigo answered being quick to reply making Rias giggle a little.

"So, I take it that you're not only here to wish us luck, right?" Rias asked knowing that Sona didn't just come here to wish them good fortune.

"Correct, we're also here to inform you all that we will help out with the current broadcast staff on broadcasting the battle," Sona explained.

"Wait, so people will be watching us fight?" Tatsuki asked Sona

"From what I'm aware of its mostly family members that would be watching today's battle," Sona explained.

"This kind of thing is normally done with Rating Games as well," Akeno said adding to the explanation

"I see," Uryu said putting his thumb and index finger under his chin.

"Not to mention, this is Rias's first Rating Battle. Not exactly the rating games but regardless I wouldn't miss this for the world." Soma said with a small smile and anticipation of what's to come.

"Well don't worry, I will do everything in my power to make this very interesting," Rias said as another portal opens before them and this time Grayfia appears from the circle.

"I see that everyone is ready, it almost times my lady," Grayfia said while being her usual professional self.

"Yes, we're ready whenever you are," Rias said confirming to the Ultimate Queen.

"We'll take our leave and Rias I know you'll beat that scumbag seven ways to Sunday," Sona said having faith that Rias and her team will win this fight.

"Don't worry I won't disappoint," Rias said to them as both Sona and Tsubaki leaves via their own magic circle.

"In a few minutes, we will use this teleport circle to send you and your team to the battlefield," Grayfia said as the teleport circle behind her begins to glow opening to the field of battle where everything will take place.

Rias, Ichigo, Akeno, Orihime, Koneko, Uryu, Kiba, Chad, Asia, Tatsuki, Yoruichi, Rukia, Renji, and lastly Issei have all gathered at the entrance of the circle. Even if they are fourteen in total after the grueling week that they had each of them can feel that they can take on anything thrown their way.

"Now that everyone is here, are you all ready?" Rias asked as a circular red magic portal opens in front of them.

"Of course we are, hell we spent all this time getting stronger," Tatsuki answered first as she slams her left fist into her right palm.

"Tatsuki's right we can do this," said Kaiba with enthusiasm.

"So question where will the fight take place?" Yoruichi asked with her arms crossed in anticipation.

"Sadly I don't know, I was contacted by my older brother this morning and told me that the stage for our battle has already been set," Rias said looking a little concerned about what her brother could be up to.

"Wait, you have an older brother?" Ichigo asked since this is the first time knowing this.

"Yes, he's Grayfia's husband and the current Lucifer," said Rias answering Ichigo's question.

"Wait! Like he's the actual devil!?" Issei said being shocked by the revelation.

"It's mostly by title and he's currently the king of devils," Rias answered.

"Wow, that's….an eye opener," Ichigo said while shocked keeps his calm not expecting Rias being related to the actual king of all devils.

"Yes but don't worry he's a very kind and caring person," Rias said with a reassuring smile.

"But it is odd, normally one of the peerage Kings would choose the location," Kiba said feeling a little confused.

"Yes but remember this isn't a regular Rating Game that we're used to. Not to mention that he also told me that it's a surprise." Rias said as she goes ahead with the rest following her.

"Why do I get the feeling that it's not going to be a pleasant one," Ichigo said feeling that the surprise would not be very pleasant.

"We'll just have to see, what awaits us on the other side," Rias said then turns around and faces the portal.

Meanwhile at Phenex Castle Riser and his peerage are ready to depart into the portal as well with Riser stepping in front of the portal with an arrogant smirk on his face and his peerage being very eager to crush their opponents.

"Alright everyone let's go in and win!" Rias and Riser saying the same sentence at once as both parties on opposite ends go inside their respective teleportation circles.

 **-Rating Battle Location: Fake Karakura Town, Karakura High School-**

Once they stepped out of the portal everyone is surprised to find themselves in front of Karakura High. "Wait…..but this is Karakura Town!" Ichigo exclaimed in shock as their battle with Riser and his peerage will be in his hometown.

"If we're going to fight here, wouldn't innocent people get caught in the crossfire?" Orihime says as she looks around while concerned for the safety of anyone unlucky enough to come across their upcoming fight.

"No….this is different….for starters this place looks deserted." Uryu points out as the team looks around and noticed that there's not a single person besides themselves.

"Now that you mention it," Tatsuki said as she would look around and can't find a single person.

"WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO THE LIVE STREAM OF THE VERY FIRST EVER RATING BATTLE! Presented by Heat Tap! The Drink that you'd kill for!"

"The hell!? Who said that?" Renji asked out loud as they all hear a voice of a young woman suddenly out of nowhere and being very loud.

"No….it can't be her," Rias said unable to believe that the owner of the voice is in on this as well.

"Or maybe it is," Akeno said with a small giggle.

"Wait! We're already live!?" Issei said as he looks around to see if he spots any cameras.

"Well, how rude of me, let me introduce myself to our audience!" A large floating screen appears in front of Rias and her team as a beautiful girl appearing in her late teens with long black hair tied into twin tails and violet eyes and wearing a magical girl outfit even sporting the magic wand and everything.

"Wait! Is that Magical Girl Milky Spiral Seven!?" Orihime squealing being a big fan of the show.

"No….and I can't believe she's involved in this as well," Rias said as she puts her palm to her face unable to believe it.

"Who's she?" Ichigo asked as he looks up at the large floating screen.

"My name is Serafall Leviathan and I will be your host and commentator for this Rating Battle and I have a special guest and will be my co-commentator with me today, introducing Mr. Kisuke Urahara!"

"WHAT!" Everyone shouts in union except for Yoruichi and Koneko says in shock to see Mr. Hat and Clogs sitting next to the girl while wearing a headset as his signature bucket hat rests on the announce table.

"What a twist," Koneko said plainly

"I really should have seen this coming," Yoruichi said in an annoyed tone.

"Thanks for having me Ms. Leviathan," Kisuke said with a friendly smile.

"Oh please, call me Magical Girl Serafall," Serafall said while doing one of her magical poses but quickly return to her seat not noticing Kisuke sweat drop while looking at her before snapping back to his professional self.

"Well, you have our thanks for letting us use this place as our stage where the game shall take place," Serafall said looking over to Kisuke giving him her thanks.

"Oh! Don't mention it! It's been collecting dust for the last few years anyway!" Kisuke said in a jolly yet in a professional tone while hiding his grin with his fan again.

"Kisuke, the hell are you talking about!?" As if hearing Ichigo's question Kisuke was quick to look directly at the camera.

"For those of you wondering I'll explain, you see I'm the one who created Fake Karakura for the Soul Society a few years back during the war with Aizen. But ever since after that, this place has been self-repairing and been gathering dust for the last few years until I was contacted by Sir Sirzech and Ms. Serafall and asked if they could use this place and since the Soul Society really has no use for it I gave them the green light to use it." Kisuke explained

"Normally in a regular rating game we could create a place from scratch with magic but since we found out about Fake Karakura and getting the ok to use it. It saved us a lot of time and magical resources." Serafall said in an innocent tone.

"Oh," Ichigo said in a deadpan tone being very close of face palming but he restrains himself from doing so.

"That would make sense," Akeno said letting out a small giggle which most didn't notice.

"But it gets better not only does the two families Gremory and Phenex get to watch but the rest of the world and afterlife as well!" Serafall said with glee.

"What!?" Rias exclaims taken by surprise not expecting this at all.

"Yup, It means everyone in the Underworld and other parts unknown are watching from the comfort of their own homes. Thanks to yours truly." Kisuke said once again grinning behind his fan.

"You gotta be kidding," Ichigo said as his right eye begins to twitch in annoyance.

"Thanks to Kisuke's help We've been promoting this event for the last eight days and we have quite the turnout with well over a billion viewers tuning in!" Serafall said

"Over b-billion viewers." Tatsuki stutters

"But when did he have the time to-"

"Sorry, that's classified," Kisuke said interrupting Issei

"I just hope that no one is watching this back in the Soul Society," Rukia said nervously thinking that if her brother sees this.

 **-Soul Society, Squad 10 Barracks-**

During the week of training, the rating battle was promoted to every part of the underworld and even in some parts of in the world of the living and heaven. Ultimately reaching the soul society, eventually reaching the ear of certain soul reapers. With the help from Squad Twelve Rangiku and the rest have gotten their hands on a large 100-inch flat screen tv that barely fits in one of the rooms as every one of Ichigo's friends from Squads 2 to 13 have gathered to watch what some believe to be the fight of the century.

"Come on the battle is going to start soon!" says Rangiku as the room they're using to watch the battle is packed.

"Bring out the snacks!" shouts Yachiru

"I brought the Heat Tap!" Yumichika announced as he brings in the drink of choice.

"Great! Toss me one will ya!" Ikkaku said as Yumichika gives him a can.

"Hmph, I can't wait to see Ichigo in action!" Kenpachi said as Yachiru eats her snacks on his shoulder.

"My, isn't this quite the turnout." said Shinsui as he takes a swig from his sake.

"To be honest, I'm looking forward to seeing this battle," Jūshirō said sitting next to his captain companion.

"Hey Rangiku, how did you pay for the live stream? It wasn't exactly cheap." Momo asked as she sits next to the busty soul reaper.

"I just used this month's fundings, just don't tell Captain Hitsugaya," Rangiku answered as she takes a Heat Tap and takes a drink.

"Don't tell me what?" Toshiro asks with Rangiku's response is spitting the drink not expecting her captain to be back so soon.

 **-In a Warehouse somewhere in Karakura Town-**

"Damn it! This stupid tv is broken again!" Hiyori shouts as she kicks at the tv violently as it shows nothing but static. The Visords are watching the Rating Battle on a large white couch.

"Hey! Watch it, that thing wasn't cheap ya know." Shinji said to Hiyori as he stops the petite blonde from damaging the tv set any further.

"Quick Hachigen, can you fix it?" Mashiro asking the large man hoping that he could fix it with his power.

"I'll try my best," Hachigen said as he uses his barrier powers to repair the Tv.

"Yeah, yeah that's it a little more to the right and there!" Hyori said as Hachigen does quick work on fixing the large device.

"I can't believe you almost spent our month's food fund for this," Kensei said as he sits on the armrest of the couch with Lisa reading one of her fashion magazines.

"Oh come on, it's Ichigo big debut how can we dare to miss such an important event like this," Shinji said with a cheeky smile on his face.

"But still I wonder how he got his powers back?" Rose asked as he wonders with his question.

"If I was a betting boy I'd say Kisuke had a hand in it. Besides, we'll just do a few jobs for Kisuke and we're good." Shinji said hoping that this would keep the group off his back.

"Bwahahahahaha! This month's Jump is funny as hell, how the heck they can make this stuff every week?!" Love laughs heavily at the humorous manga magazine.

"Hey keep it down will ya it's about to start," Hiyori telling Love as they all look on for what many would consider the fight of the year.

 **-Back in Fake Karakura-**

"I feel queasy all of a sudden," Issei said sheepishly.

Serafall pulls out a small rule book and quickly goes to her microphone. "And now for the rules for the Rating Battle, First rule: Each fight will take place in random locations of the town with the exception of the team's base of operations."

"Second Rule: Each fight will be either. One on one, two on two, two on one and three on three! Depending on how many the leader of the team is willing to send out with the first fight being one on one with the rest being at random."

"The Third rule is rather obvious but it worth mentioning: The team that has knocked out all of the opposing team's members will win the Rating Battle."

"The fourth rule is after a victory each player has the choice of either head back to their respective base or move forward to the opposing side to fight another battle."

"Fifth rule each team can revive only one of their members during the battle."

"And the sixth and final rule items such as potions are fair game," Serafall says as she closes the rule book and taking her seat and properly adjusting her headset.

"Fair enough," Rias said in a calm but determined demeanor.

"As long as we have both Orihime and Asia, we should be fine," Kiba said with his sword firmly in hand.

"Now then with all of that out of the way let us meet the players that will be participating in this battle," Serafall said as on cue Sona in the same room as Kisuke and Serafall only being behind the camera signals one of the camera operators to turn their cameras on Team Rias.

"First off we have Team Gremory!" A spotlight hits the group as a collection of camera drones surround them. "With their base being Karakura High School!"

"Ah…..what should we do?" Asia asks feeling a little nervous with so many cameras.

"Just smile and wave," Akeno answered keeping her cool as she puts on a smile and waves.

"But Ichigo barely smiles!" Rukia said letting out a small giggle a little while taking a jab at Ichigo

"Oh shut up!" Ichigo said quickly ticked at Rukia's comment.

"Come on guys, let's just play along," Kiba said waving like the rest.

"Yeah, a little showboating wouldn't hurt," Yoruichi said as she even threw a kiss at one of the cameras.

"Next we have Team Phenex. With their base location being Karakura Town Hall." The screen then shows Riser and his peerage already in the building with Riser giving an arrogant smirk while his peerage giving off an anxious feeling as if they are ready to face Team Gremory and crush them. Making Ichigo scowl a little.

"Now with the introductions out of the way, let's get this battle started!" Kisuke said once again in a jolly tone.

"I agree! Players!, get ready and by the blessing of the magical superstar Serafall, Let the Rating Battle BEGIN!" While doing a few magical poses Serafall uses her magic staff to signal the beginning of the rating battle.

"Come on everyone, we got work to do," Rias said as everyone quickly heads inside the school with their main room of operation being Ichigo and Rias's classroom with a magic circle located in a corner of the room with a large plasma screen on the wall so they could see the fight. The circle is ready to teleport the first participant.

"Ok so who should go first?" Kiba asked wondering who's fighting first.

"I will!" Before anyone would answer Issei was quick to take the first fight.

"Wait, Issei we don't know who you will be up against," Renji said in concern.

"Yeah, we can't take the risk of-

"Come on, I've been training hard under both Kisuke and Yoruichi for the last week! I mean yeah I'm a pawn but I know I'm strong enough to take on anything Riser and his peerage can throw at!" Issei said interrupting Rukia with great determination and seriousness as he's willing to prove himself to everyone.

Rias just looks at Issei and the last time he was this serious was when the incident with Asia. The crimson-haired heiress smiles softly towards Issei having forgotten how loyal Issei was to her ever since she saved him and added him to her peerage.

"Well if Issei says he can do it, then let him have his shot," Ichigo said placing his hand on the younger teen's shoulder believing that Issei can pull off their first win.

"Ichigo," Issei said not expecting Ichigo supporting his choice as he looks up at the older teen while the teen himself is still having mixed feelings with the substitute soul reaper of what happened the previous night.

"Very well, but before I send you out there," Rias said as she puts her hand on Issei's head and suddenly feels something unlocking inside of him.

"Wha-what was that?" Issei asked looking at Rias as she puts her hand down.

"When I made you my pawn Issei, I used eight of my pawn pieces but never telling you how much power you'd received. If I had unleashed them all at once your body wouldn't be able to take it. I had to put a spell to seal it all away, but thanks to your training you're now able to use another portion of your powers." Rias said while placing her hand on his right shoulder.

"Wait! Really!?" Issei said getting excited as well feeling the portion of the power flowing through him.

"Yes, really," Rias replies with a small chuckle finding Issei's excitement a bit humorous.

"Thanks, Rias, and don't you worry I'll make you proud," Issei says as he goes towards the teleport circle and looks back to his friends.

"Wish me luck, guys!" Issei said before vanishing into the portal.

"Good luck, Issei," Asia said holding her hands together hoping that Issei comes out as the victor.

 **-Stage Location: Hatake Battle Arcade-**

As he steps out of the circle Issei finds himself inside what looks like an Arcade with the place filled with several types of games from fighting games to shooting games. But most arcade machines are placed against the walls of the place with the center being empty and with a spotlight hanging over it.

"So...this is it?" Issei says as he looks around.

 **"Issei, remember what I told you last night."**

"Yeah I know, don't think about it," Issei said looking at his already activated boosted gear hearing the dragon from his dream talking to him.

 **"If you wish to be the victor, concentrate on the fight at hand and stay focus."**

"I know, I know. I'll stay focus on the fight, I have to anyway." Issei said only for the image of Ichigo and Rias quickly appears in Issei's thoughts with the young teen quickly shaking his head to get the picture off his mind.

 **"The fight hasn't even started and already you're thinking it."**

"Oh shut up, it's easier said than done ok!" Issei said towards his sacred gear as it continues to glow emerald green.

 **"I know but the best I could do before it starts is to offer advice. The rest is up to you."**

"Yeah….everyone is counting on me, so I'll make this fight count!" Issei said.

 **"That's one way to put it, Not to mention thanks to your mistress unlocking a portion of your powers the boosted gear should be able to speed up on the boosting process."**

"Really!?" Issei with an excited smile as if that was the best news he has heard all week.

"My, talking to yourself already and the fight has yet to begin."

Issei quickly turns around and sees his opponent. A young girl with blue hair and light brown eyes. Her hair has four short ponytails, with two of the four pointed up and the remaining two pointed down and the front of her hair features split bangs going across her forehead, with side bangs framing her face. The girl sports a white haori with a red obi, which is worn under a red happi coat. She wears bandages on her forearms and shins and wears black guards over her hands while wearing a pair of zōri.

"I'm Mira of the house of Phenex and you will be our first victim," Mira said as she prepares to fight Issei as she spins her staff that quickly catches fire on both sides of it.

"I don't think so! I won't lose to you or to anyone of you! I came here to win and save Rias!" Issei exclaims with determination ready to take the first win for Rias.

"Hmph! In your dreams kid!" Mira said readying her weapon as both her and Issei charge at each other in the center of the room.

 _ **THIS ONE IS GOING TO GET CRAZY! PLACE YOUR BETS AND FIGHT!**_

 **To be Continued!**

 **Ending Theme - Roundabout by Yes**

 **(A/N: Haha! Now we get started with the Rating Battle with Issei vs. Mira! Who will win? Who will lose? Who knows! I'm just happy that my fic reached the year one mark. Hard to believe that it all started with a simple scribble on a notepad app and after that, it just exploded. Thanks to Ashton for helping me edit the first to chapter 5 of DxR whenever he had the chance. But most of all I would like to thank each and every one of you for faving and following the story. Even with all the bumps of the past year, you guys stuck around and for that, I'm very grateful. Not to mention your reviews have helped me keep going with this story and hopefully I will keep going until the final letter is typed. Now time to answer your reviews.)**

 **First, we have, SomethingAncient: Thanks, man and I'm glad that you're enjoying the story so far and hopefully this chapter will be to your liking.**

 **Next, we have, AJ: Sadly I can't say who Akeno will hook up with not to mention Issei already will be paired with Asia. I'm not planning on having a harem in this story. Everybody will be paired up with somebody. But I do recommend for everyone to stick around as it will be worth it. As for Issei, all I can say is that he's going to have a rough time at first and might take a while for him to accept it, just it won't be now.**

 **Bladetri: Glad you like it :)**

 **Treyalexander63917: It's ok man, I can understand that kind of thing happening just never thought of that with the Quincies going to such extremes. As for the whole Gotei knowing of God's death, they have stayed out of the faction war but that will be brought into light when we get to it. As for Trihexia, I had to use DxD wiki just to know what it is since I don't have access to the light novels. I only have both anime and manga versions of Highschool DxD to go on.**

 **BrokenLifeCycle: Yeah if only we had something like that somewhere on the internet making crossovers would have been a lot easier. But that aside thank you for your praise and once again thank you for recommending me Grammarly this thing helped me out more than you know. As for Ichigo's Getsuga Tencho, I have a few thing in plan for that ;)**

 **Matemeo3: Well at least you will continue to follow it, just be sure not to miss the good stuff on the road ahead.**

 **daizuke: Si :)**

 **HaremLover: No**

 **NS120121: Exactly, if it just a one-sided show it will get stale and I would probably abandon it. But that won't be happening as long as I keep it nice and clean. :D**

 **Aussiepsycho: Well like I said with NS120121 if it was just a one-sided beat down especially in the main event then it would boring and stale and I'm not having that here.**

 **Well, everyone, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please drop a review and tell me what you think and if you have a suggestion let me know and we'll see if it makes the cut or not. Well then even if it's a little early Happy One Year Anniversary to The Devil and The Reaper fanfiction may we see each other when we reach year 2. Til next time my friends, later.)**

 **(The Devil and The Reaper** **is written and edited by Alpha Espada. Please support the official release of both series used in this crossover.)**


	10. Round 1: A Roundabout Brawl!

**(A/N: Hello my lovely readers it's been a while...almost three months...crap! But worry not because the show is back on with Issei taking the lead with the very first fight of the Rating Battle! Who would win and who would lose!? Let's find out and also at the end I will be giving a big update so please stay tuned till the end, thank you. Now sit back and enjoy!)**

The fight has begun as both Issei and Mira charge at each other. Clashing head-on with Mira striking her burning long staff while Issei blocking it with his sacred gear.

"Hmph...do you really think that you guys will win this rating battle?" Mira asked as she pushes Issei only for the teen to hold his ground against the staff-wielding girl and pushes back using his boosted gear.

"Of course we will, we trained too much to just lose to you jerks," Issei answered as his boosted gear begins to charge.

 **BOOST!**

"Ha! You think that you're the only ones that trained all week, We came here to win and Lord Riser will get what he desires most!" Mira said as she backs away from Issei making Issei lose his balance as Mira dash towards him unleashing a barrage of burning staff strikes.

"I even brought my special magic long staff for today's battle," Mira said as goes on the attack. Issei had little time to react as the strikes and blows hits and burns him repeatedly with the teen barely able to block or dodge most of them. Then Mira quickly swings her staff and hits Issei sending him flying and crashing against one of the arcade machines and slumps to the floor.

"Damn," Issei said feeling the pain of the blows as well as the burns.

"This is not looking good for Issei," Serafall said doing her job as a commentator.

"Hopefully he could recover from that assault," Kisuke said adding to the commentary.

Issei gets back on his feet using one of the arcade machines to support himself while rubbing off a bit of blood from his lower lip with his arm.

"My my aren't you a glutton for punishment," Mira said mockingly as she spins her burning staff ready to give Issei another beating if needed.

"Don't count me out just yet!" Issei declared as his boosted gear glows again.

 **BOOST!**

"Then bring it, loser!" Mira shouts challenging Issei.

"Trust me! I will!" Issei said as he readies his boosted gear and runs towards Mira. The girl using her staff tries to hit Issei with her staff strikes only for the teen to dodge and move out of the way and once in point-blank range, he points it towards Mira.

"Crap! No Way!" Mira exclaimed not liking where this is going.

"Game Over!" Issei said with a grin.

" **DRAGON!** " But before Issei fire his attack a certain image appears in his mind.

" **SHOT!** " Issei shouts as he fires his attack only to miss Mira completely and destroys one of the arcade machines instead.

"Wha?" Issei said and before he could react Mira charges at him and hits him with another barrage of burning staff strikes sending him flying again against the machines and falls down on the floor.

"Hahahahahahahahaha….that's really all you got!? One super powerful shot and you just missed me at close range!? Hahahahahaha! This should be a lot easier than I thought it would be." Mira said in an arrogant tone while laughing at Issei's poor aim.

Issei finds himself face down on the floor already bloodied and beaten up by Mira with the girl herself spinning her flame covered staff. All the while, the blue-haired girl's body is surrounded by the flames.

"Wow and I thought Issei would get a hit with that attack, could have given him an edge in the fight!" Serafall said feeling a bit disappointed.

"Probably, if it wasn't for the miss. Maybe he got distracted for a split second?"

"You really think so Mr. Urahara?" Serafall asked

"Call it a hunch," Kisuke said

 **-Team Gremory Base-**

"Argh...Come on Issei get it together!" Tatsuki shouts at the large screen with the rest watching from the homeroom.

"This doesn't look good," Uryu said as push up his glasses.

"Come on Issei, I know you can do it," Asia said as she prays for Issei only to get a small sharp pain in her head for doing so.

"I wonder what made Issei miss like that, especially in such close range?" Kiba asked watching the fight like the rest.

Ichigo remains silent and his arms crossed and keep his eyes on the fight.

Meanwhile, Rias while silent and watching the fight like Ichigo she couldn't help but bite her thumb worrying about Issei.

 **-Hatake Battle Arcade-**

"Hmph...not so tough are you? Mira said arrogantly as she continues to spin her staff and standing over Issei.

"Crap….how did I end up like this?" Issei asked as the image of Ichigo and Rias appears only for the voice of his sacred gear to snap him back to reality.

 **"Issei, Focus!"**

"What do you think I'm trying to do," Issei said to his sacred gear as he slowly gets back on his feet and shakes away the image in his head.

"Heh, and a few minutes ago you were all 'I'm gonna beat you and your stupid master.' Get real!" Mira said proudly as she spins her magic wooden staff and lets out a collection of fireballs at Issei only for the teen to evade and use one of the arcade machines for cover and once the fireballs stop Issei quickly goes back to the offensive and come at Mira and the two begin trading blows as well as some words.

"You can't win!"

"Shut up!"

"Loser!"

"Brat!"

"Scum!"

"B*tch!"

"D**chbag!"

"Prick!"

"Ass-

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Tone down the language you two this show is supposed to be Rated T! We could lose our ads over this !" Serafall said as she slams her hands on the table.

"Not to mention we can't censor that fast," Kisuke said looking over seeing Sona and Tsubaki trying to catch up and censor the language.  
Eventually, both Mira and Issei stopped their assaults on each other and are breathing heavily while covered in bruises from their respective attacks.

"Geez, I can't believe you're still standing," Mira said still breathing heavily in between words.

"Same...to you," Issei said adding to their small talk.

"But just you wait, I might be strong right now thanks to the non-stop training we had. But compared to me the rest of my team are a lot stronger and don't get me started how strong Lord Riser is." Mira said in a boasting matter as she gets back to her fighting stance.

"Then please don't and let's quit this chat and finish this!" Issei said as he throws a punch with his booster gear at Mira only for the girl to evade and smacks Issei with her burning staff leaving a burnt mark on his cheek.

"Argh! Geez, that burns!" Issei said backing away only for Mira to quickly follow up with another smack with her staff.

"This fight does not look good for Issei," Serafall said watching

"From the start, this has not been easy for him, granted he's holding his own but let's see if he could pull through," Kisuke said while silently hoping that Issei would turn things around.

"Just give up already! Stupid Jerk!" Mira said swinging her staff to hit Issei only for the teen to catch the weapon with his boosted gear.

"Huh?" Mira said not expecting the teen to grab her weapon head on.

Issei then grabs onto his boosted gear while still holding on to the staff. "I won't give in, not when Rias's freedom is on the…" As Issei prepares to boost the image of Rias and Ichigo kissing suddenly appears in his mind again.

"NO!" Issei shouted as he shakes his head trying to forget about what happened in the process letting go of Mira's weapon.

"No?" Mira asked with a confused look on her face.

"It's nothing, just bring it!" Issei said trying to forget the image that's been appearing in his mind from the start as his boosted gear glows.

 **BOOST!**

"Fine by me!" Mira quickly dashes towards Issei and with the end of her staff being coated with flames, she repeatedly strikes at Issei with the teen dodging and deflecting the attacks with his sacred gear but by doing so he would get burned by the flames but all the while continues to boost.

 **BOOST!**

 **BOOST!**

Issei eventually backs away from Mira's attack and aims his boosted gear at her. But before he would get the chance to use his dragon shot attack Mira quickly goes on the attack again not giving Issei a chance to use his technique.

"If you think I let you use your attack again, you're sadly mistaken," Mira said going on a relentless assault on Issei.

"Damn! I got to get an opening." Issei said as his boosted gear keeps boosting.

 **BOOST!**

Issei quickly moves out of the way of Mira's attacks while trying to gain some distance between him and her.

 _'Damn, she won't let up!'_ Issei thought as his sacred gear begins to glow an emerald light.

 **"Issei, there is a way to defeat her."**

"I'm all ears," Issei said willing to take any advice at the moment.

 **"Try to hit her head on again!"**

"What!?"

 **"Come now, Dragon Shot isn't your only technique, I'm sure you can come up with another technique that would be more effective against her."**

 **"Just remember to stay focused!"**

"Yeah! I got it!" Issei said only for the image to show up again only for him to quickly shake it off his mind while getting tired of it popping up.

Issei would look at his sacred gear and thought of what the dragon told him. Can he come up with a new technique on the spot? He already boosted up 4 times now and already the sacred gear is reaching its limit. As he thinks up a new attack Mira is once again on top of him with Issei quickly dodging her attacks once again and then an idea came to him.

"What? Are you just going to avoid me for the rest of the fight!?" Mira said getting agitated of Issei's constant dodging and evading.

"Just wait I have a new attack made especially for you! Issei said as his sacred gear glows brightly. "Let's just hope it works."

 **BOOST!**

"Well instead of avoiding me and talking come and face me!" Mira said as she goes directly at Issei with the brown-haired teen staying where he is as readies his boosted gear.

"Come and get some," Issei shouts as Mira swings her burning staff against Issei only for him to duck under the swing and was now directly in front of her.

"This is for Rias and screw anyone who messes with her!" Issei shouted but on that very moment, the image of Ichigo and Rias kissing comes back full force. Getting very tired of it and getting angry over it Issei once again tries to push that awful image away while unknowingly adding another boost overloading the gear.

 **BOOST!** Without thinking of the consequence of his attack as he tries to clear out his mind Issei unleashes his attack.

"Dragon! **EXPLOSION**!"

 **"Issei wait!"** said the red dragon's voice but it was too late. In slow motion Issei would slams his boosted gear fist against Mira only for the girl in a split second blocks the attack with her long staff and in the process with all the stored up energy of his sacred gear it caused an explosion breaking Mira's weapon completely while at the same time the blowback of the blast hits Issei hard.

The entire room is caught in the explosion causing smoke and debris to block the cameras around them from view.

"WOW! Unbelievable! After charging as long as he did, Issei hits Mira with that bang of an attack!" Serafall said in her usual magical girl act.

"But I wonder if that very explosion could be a double-edged sword for him?" Kisuke said in a concerned tone.

"What do you mean, Mr. Urahara?" Serafall asked looking over to her co-host.

"I mean that the explosion while obviously would deal some damage to his opponent, but I fear it could do the same for Issei or worse," Kisuke said in a serious tone.

"Oh, I see," Serafall said as both waits for the smoke to clear.

"Issei! No!" Rias cries out worried for her pawn seeing the explosion happen.

"Issei!" Asia said hoping that Issei isn't hurt too much.

"The hell is he thinking pulling something like that?" Ichigo said slamming his fist against a table.

"Unleashing all of that power at once? I don't believe he would be walking that off anytime soon." Kiba feeling concern for Issei.

"Do you think Issei won?" Asia asked hoping that Issei would come out on top.

"It's hard to tell with the smoke in the way," Akeno said with her eyes open and with a serious look on her face.

Meanwhile, Rias is having a hard time keeping her cool, seeing Issei going so far for her and yet being reckless while doing so. Maybe he wasn't ready after all.

The smoke clears and Issei is the first to appear slumped against a broken arcade machine after crashing into it with blood coming down from the side of his head as well as covered in dust and debris from the explosion. The teen is heavily injured with his outfit completely scorched by his own attack as well as his sacred gear arm being severely burnt.

"Argh….damn it!...last time I'm….doing…..that," Issei said as he slowly gets up only to fall on the floor as his body aching all over and seeing that the entirety of his right sleeve of his outfit is burnt off completely while his arm shows burns right down to his sacred gear.

"Ah….cough...damn….that was…..one heck….of a blast," Issei said as he tries to get up but has little energy to do so.

 **"Well, what did you expect? After boosting six times and turning the gear into a bomb." It's a miracle that your arm didn't get blown off completely."**

"Wait….six times?" Issei said confused about what the dragon said.

 **"Yes six, while you were pushing back that memory you unknowingly added another boost to the gear, overloading it in the process."**

"Damn…..well at least it...worked," Issei said as he tries to get back on his feet only to fall to the floor again.

 **"For your sake it better, that girl used her weapon to block the attack but from the looks of it she's nowhere to be seen."**

"Speaking….of which….where is she? Issei looks around the arcade as much as he could with many of its machines either out of order or completely destroyed. Then looking over to the prize corner that's when he saw her.

When the explosion happened it sent Mira straight into the prize corner and was completely buried in a large collection of plushies of several animals of different sizes cushioning the impact she would have received if it was anywhere else in the arcade. While getting herself out she didn't escape the blast completely with most of her outfit being damaged while she herself being covered in cuts and bruises but she was standing just barely.

"Bu...but….how?" Issei asked in dismay.

"You could say….it was luck….with the plushies….but at the same time…You…..hesitated for a...moment and that's…..all I needed…Like I said…my staff is made of very strong wood and…..empowered…..by….magic..so….it….took most of the blast and it may be destroyed but thanks to that…..I manage to back away a little in the nick of time….and just so happens…..to have a cushy landing…..unlike you." Mira said keeping herself standing by using one of the busted machines as her support.

"Damn….it," Issei said trying to get up only to fall on his back and slowly goes unconscious.

 _"Rias…...everyone…..I'm sorry."_

 **FIGHT OVER! MIRA OF PHENEX HOUSE WINS!**

 **-Team Gremory Base-**

"What!? No!" Renji exclaimed with a surprised look on his face with the rest of the team being shocked by the announcement of Issei's loss as well as their first defeat.

"Damn it!" Tatsuki and exclaimed in anger.

Ichigo grit his teeth in frustration he had faith that Issei would pull through while Uryu remains silent but not happy with the result of the fight.

"Crap," Koneko said simply

"Well, that blew up in his face, literally," Yoruichi said with a disappointed look on her face.

Rias was at a loss for words of what she has witnessed and what she has heard. Issei lost and he's severely hurt by his own power as well.

"Oh Issei," Asia said sadden by Issei's loss and then the teleport circle glows and coming out of it is an unconscious Issei.

"Issei!" Asia cried quickly going to the wounded teen's side.

Quickly snapping out of her shock thanks to Asia, Rias is quick to take command of her team. "Orihime please help Asia with Issei," Rias said looking over to Orihime.

"Yes of course," Orihime said as she goes to Issei with Asia asking Chad to move him to a better spot with the large teen agreeing and helps to move him to the other side of the room where there is more space.

 **-Team Phenex Base-**

"Hmph so much for the sacred gear twerp," Riser said with a smirk as the portal circle opens and Mira stepping out looking worse for wear but she stands and yet she would limp.

"Nicely done Mira!" Riser said congratulating his pawn Mira.

"Thank you Lord Riser, but my staff is destroyed," Mira said being happy that her king praises her for the victory but at the same time a little sad that her weapon got destroyed in the process.

"No matter. A small price to pay for our first victory with many more coming our way, I'm sure." Riser said with a smirk.

"Agreed, here Mira have this," Ravel said giving the heavily damaged Mira a potion.

"Thank you, milady," Mira said as she takes the potion and drinks it and under a minute she's fully healed.

 **-Visored's Warehouse-**

"Ah Damn it! I lost, stupid dumb luck!" Shinji shouts in frustration having lost the bet with Hiyori quickly taking his money.

"Ha! Called it!" Hiyori said with a mean looking smirk as she counts her winnings

"Damn it and I was cheering for the kid too!" Shinji said being

"Please that kid was off the minute the fight started," said Kensai as he polishes his zanpakuto while sitting on the arm of the large couch.

"You really think so?" Mashiro asked Kensai

"Yeah, I kinda noticed it too but I guess everybody has their off days just sucks for them that it has to be today of all days." Love said

"I would have to agree," Rose said as he takes some snacks from the fridge to restock for the next fight.

"To be honest it is also worth noting that this Issei fellow was more or less distracted," Hachi said as he takes a sip of his tea.

"You noticed that too? Thought it was just me." Lisa said as she sits right in the middle of the couch with Mashiro and Love.

 **-Studio Room-**

"Well there you have it, folks, that last fight was quite the bag wasn't it Mr. Urahara?"

"Indeed, but I believe it's time we go to the next fight."

"You're right and the next fight will be once again one on one."

"Now both teams please choose your next player."

 **-Team Gremory Base-**

"So who wants to go?" Rias asked her group as both Orihime and Asia are busy tending to Issei's injuries.

Ichigo looks over to Issei and wondered what made the younger teen go that far with his powers.

Just as Tatsuki and Renji were about to volunteer Chad quickly beats them to it.

"I'll go," Chad said standing up with everyone looks over and sees him volunteering to be in the next fight.

"Are you sure, Chad?" Rias asked

"Yeah, I'm sure." Chad answered looking at Rias with his silent determination.

"Very well, but just be careful out there since it's now clear that we're weren't the only ones that spent the last week training and apparently they brought their new toys as well." Rias said to Chad.

"I'll be fine, I've been through worse over the years." Chad said as he walks over to the teleportation circle.

"Good luck Chad." Ichigo said to his longtime friend while Tatsuki adds her five cents.  
"And make sure you win this one!" Tatsuki said to the large teen as Chad disappears into the circle and into the next fight.

Rukia then looks over at Rias. "Are you alright, Rias?" Rukia asked

"To be honest no, I really didn't expect this to happen. I just hope that Chad would give us a win." Rias said hoping that things would go their way this time.

"Don't worry he will." Ichigo said with Rias looking at him and becomes captivated by his unshaken nature and his belief in his friend.

 **-Team Phenex Base-**

"Go Isabela and bring us another victory!" Riser said with a grin as he sits on the mayor's seat inside the large office as he orders his rook piece into battle.

"As you wish my lord." Isabela said as she goes towards the teleportation circle and vanishes.

 **-Stage Location: Karakura Alleyways-**  
 **  
**In the alleyways of Karakura, Chad walks out of the teleportation circle and begins walking around looking for his opponent. After Issei's loss the rather tall teen knew that he has to win this fight to make up for the bad start.

As Chad continues to walk something catches the corner of his eye and a kick appears out of the corner and strikes at the large teen only for Chad to block the kick with his Brazo Derecha de Gigante.

The one behind the kick is a woman with short, light brown hair and grey eyes. Her hair has three red highlights across. She wears a plain white mask which covers the right side of her face. Wearing a black jacket and matching jeans. The jacket has wide shoulders and a wide collar with leather straps on both her arms. It is also slightly open and it is cut off at her midriff. The right side of her jeans has a section cut off, revealing some of her thighs and rear end while also having leather straps on her calves just below the ankles. Two extra straps are on her right pant leg to keep it in place. Lastly, she wears black fighting gloves and boots for hand to hand combat and like with Mira's staff they looked enhanced with stronger material and magic.

"I am Isabela of The House of Phenex, nice arm you got there can't wait to tear it off your socket." Isabela said ruthlessly

"My name is Yasutora Sado but my friends call me Chad." Chad said introducing himself while remaining calm and his Brazo Derecha de Gigante is still active.

"Hmph...well aren't you the quiet one, and you know what they say about the quiet ones…...they get wrecked." Isabela said slamming her fist into her open palm.

"I don't think it goes like that." Chad said getting into his fighting stance.

"Whatever, enough talk let's go!" Isabela said as she dashed towards Chad while the large teen keeps his grounds.

 **THIS ONE IS FOR THE BOOKS! GO FOR BROKE! FIGHT!**

When Isabela threw a punch Chad counters with his own with both fist impacting against each other causing a small shockwave.

Isabela quickly pulls back her punch while Chad pulls back as well remaining in his spot and hasn't broken a sweat yet.

"Hmph….I think we're going to have a good ol' time, Chad." Isabela said with a smirk as she dashed towards Chad and throws a punch at him only for the large teen blocking it with his right arm.

Then using his immense strength Chad pushes Isabela back and fires at her.

"EL DIRECTO!" Chad shouted as the end of the extension on Sado's shoulder opens up and charges up spiritual energy he then releases a huge blast of spiritual energy heading straight towards Isabela.

Isabela quickly dodges the large ball of energy and quickly goes into Chad's space and delivers several rapid jabs and kicks against Chad while he's taking and enduring the blows and eventually forcing him to back away and throws a right hook towards the masked woman only for Isabela to dodge the punch and having it land against a wall of one of the many buildings in the area leaving an imprint of his fist on it.

"Wow, if that were to land on me I would have been in trouble." Isabela said being kinda impressed with Chad….kinda.

"Probably." Chad said being one of little words.

"Hmm….I don't get it, why do all of this for a girl you barely know? Not only that you're not a devil, just a normal human with spiritual powers and a weird arm."

"It's true that I don't know Rias Gremory all that well, but if Ichigo is willing to help her out then I'll do everything in my power to help as well. Even if It's an pointless endevour to you and your leader. But it is more than enough reason for me." Chad said giving his reasons.

"Alright then, but enough with the chatter. Last I check this is supposed to be a fight!" Isabela dash towards Chad and throws another barrage of punches and kicks.

Chad takes the blows head on and counters back with several punches of his own hitting Isabel and her fists. This keeps on with both sides not letting up or giving in, eventually seeing an opening Chad attacks.

"EL DIRECTO!" Chad shouts launching another blast of spiritual power and hitting Isabela sending her out of the alleyways and onto the next street which leads to.

 **-Stage Location: Shopping District-**

Isabela lands on a stand of cabbages crashing into it and for some reason a faraway voice could be heard saying _"My cabbages!"_ Isabela was quick to recover as she sees Chad running towards her and fires another El Director directly at her only for the masked woman to quickly move out of the way and lets the attack hit the rest of the vegetable stand.

Isabela quickly goes into Chad's space and delivers a sharp uppercut hitting Chad square in the chin. Chad quickly responds by punching Isabela into her stomach making her lose her breath and quickly knees her in the face with her mask taking most of the hit as she falls on her back.

Chad then grabs Isabela by her leg and throws her into a furniture store and fires another El Directo into the store causing an explosion. But out of the smoke several furnitures are thrown towards Chad with the large teen barely dodging them and would destroy some of them with his Brazo Derecha de Gigante and some El Directos.

"Wow that's a lot of furniture!" Serafall said enjoying the fight so far.

"Yes and hey most of them are half off!" Kisuke said with a smile.

But once the last pieces of furniture are thrown Isabela flies out of the store and plants both her feet against Chad's face and sends him backward and into a one yen store. But Chad quickly jumps out of the store and fires another El Directo at Isabela only for the woman to duck under the attack and dash towards Chad again and throws another uppercut but Chad evades and counters with a left hook hitting the mask side of Isabela's face and knocks it off.

Chad's eyes open wide of what he sees what was under the half mask but Isabela quickly covers the right side of her face and quickly finds her mask and puts it back on and goes on to her fighting stance.

"What happened?" Chad asked a bit surprised of what he saw just now.

"It's none of your business!" Isabela exclaimed as she throws a kick only for Chad to block it and push it away only for Isabela to run into Chad and throws several punches knocking him left to right and then finish her combo with a high kick sending Chad mid air of a moment before landing on the ground.

"If you know what's good for you, stay down and don't get up." Isabela said in a threatening tone as she begins to walk away thinking that she won this fight. But she stops halfway and hears Chad getting back on his feet and resumes his fighting stance.

"Sorry but I won't give up that easily." Chad said as Isabela turns around and faces the large teen.

"You know, you should have stayed down and saved yourself a visit to the hospital. But now when I'm done with you, you'll be visiting the morgue." Isabela said as she turns around and fires up with both fists and her feet setting them on fire.

"That won't happen and I won't go down without giving it my all." Chad said as his left arm transforms and becomes similar to his right arm only with the colors being white with a red stripe running down the length of the center and a spike protrudes from his left shoulder as two more extend over his chest.

"Brazo Izquierdo del Diablo." Chad said

"I take it that this is you at your best?" Isabela asked readying her fists.

"Yeah" Chad answered as he walks towards Isabela

"Good." Isabela said as she and Chad then run towards each other and both throws a punch simultaneously and strike one another squarely on each others' fists signaling that their second round starts now!

 **To be Continued!**

 **Ending Theme - Roundabout by Yes**

 **(A/N: So yeah Issei lost the first fight and before everybody picks up their torches and pitchforks and calling for my head! Issei will get another chance later on so no worries. But man this fight with Isabela and Chad was fun to write especially when listening to the first half of The Mars Volta's Cygnus Vismund Cygnus.**

 **But of course time for the update and what happened in the last few months. Well, first off in July I had a slump aka writer's block and even with most of the fights already planned out I was stuck with the block so I took some time off from writing and concentrated on other things like real life, video games and so on. Then August comes around and my writer's block was gone finally but then my laptop died...again and this time it was my own fault. To make a long story short I was playing Ygopro online and went up against an opponent with a stun deck. Basically, I raged because my opponent was stunning and negating my plays and then I went HULK SMASH! on the keyboard of my laptop and underneath the keyboard so happens to be where the hard drive is. Apparently, one good fist slam is enough to kill a hard drive completely because the next thing I knew the message Hard Drive is not installed pops up on screen and nothing worked. So once again I went over to Best Buy to have Geeksquad look at it, I explained it to the attendant of what happened and we both agreed that the hard drive was good as dead. Thankfully nothing was lost since most of my stuff I keep in an external hard drive from my old laptop which was good but now comes the bad part.**

 **They told m that they would have to ship my laptop to the states since I live in Puerto Rico and it would take 2 to 3 weeks. I cringed when they said that to me, so I quickly asked if it just replaces the hard drive how come they couldn't replace it with a new one from the store and all I got for an answer is "Sorry company policy." Crap! So left it with them and be stuck with my android as a replacement but not by much. Then when two weeks pass by I get a call from Geek squad telling me that my laptop has arrived...BUT apparently the volume button is broken and they have to send it back. They never told me how did that happen but my guess is probably some UPS jerkoff threw my packaged laptop around like a frisbee. So another 2 weeks passed by and in turn costing me the month. But by early September laptop finally comes back and after a week's worth of reinstalling and updating I was set. And here we are, so I apologize for making you guys wait for so long.**

 **Now for the review responds and apparently, the last person left me with a very 'nice' message and from the looks of it has a hard time finishing the first chapter to the latest one.**

 **Murcielago: Here you go, buddy!**

 **Meech: Before anything, I will say I won't be bashing you my man and thank you for giving me a very detailed review much appreciated. Yes, most fics would pull the whole harem thing with some that worked while others just don't. The humor is mostly how I would envision it or how I would see it in the show but yeah I understand what you mean one of my regular critics has pointed this out mostly with the dinner scene with Ichigo's dad.**

 **With Ichigo and Rias yeah they are different in many ways especially with one working to earn his powers while the other was simply born with it, which to me has always been interesting and it's something I've been wanting to see for a while.**

 **As for Issei, I won't lie before watching Highschool DxD anime and just watching the videos and clips that are around Youtube to go by I hated Issei for being such giant perv and as a character as a whole I thought he was just irredeemable. But when I finally came around to it I sat down and watched DxD season 1 completely and my opinion of him has changed big time and it's mostly what happened between him and Asia. Even though yeah the kid has some major moral issues and his perv nature can get annoying, he does show some good just not much. But here I'm trying to make him relatable and be likable but to the point of being out of character.**

 **Lastly and I can't keep any promises but I'll try not to rush things but then again I was writing the chaps under a deadline but not anymore.**

 **Another thing my lovely readers my former editor Ashton Mesmer is working on a project on Youtube called The Last Lamia the story is great** **with 4 episodes so far. Check it out and give him some love, and tells him that Alpha sent you.**

 **So next time we continue with the ChadvsIsabela fight and see who's going to fight in the next fight! I know but I won't tell HA! As always please leave a review and if you like this story and you're new give this story a fav and follow to keep getting more of the good stuff. I'm Alpha Espada and till next time! Later!)**

 **(The Devil and The Reaper is written and edited by Alpha Espada. Please support the official release of both series used in this crossover.)**


	11. Round 2: Death, Heart and Understanding!

**(A/N: Hello my lovely readers, just letting you guys know that Hurricane Maria practically kicked Puerto Rico's ass including mine. It's been 3-4 weeks since I lost power and water tends to come and go. But know that I'm doing alright and still in one piece. The last 3-4 weeks were difficult I mean heck my backyard was completely wrecked with fallen trees, fallen branches and a number of other things including a patio table that belonged to my neighbor next door. I had to machete like I was in the deep jungle, just so I could have some space in my backyard in the first week. But once the stormed cleared I finally looked around the town and man was Maria a bitch! The Plaza is in ruins with most of the trees torn and fallen, the communication tower is bent over like a pretzel so there was no communication whatsoever. Telephone poles and electric cables scattered on the streets. Wooden houses destroyed some completely, my old kindergarten place is gone. Some roads are blocked by debris from houses, trees and so on. Afterwards, people going around for supplies most importantly water, food and gas. Lines to the gas station would stretch for miles. Same with some markets that were able to open with many people in line to get what they need, there was even a 6 pm curfew which later is pushed to 9 pm. Category 5 Hurricane is no joke, but as the days went by little by little everyone went to work to get things back to normal. After a few days, water slowly came back but very little but it was welcomed regardless especially since I needed a shower asap at the time. My house is ok since it's made out of cement and iron, with the exception of the backyard which is already explained. We did experience some flooding but not too bad only reaching to our feet and only lasted a day or two. Thankfully we have an old lantern and a gas-powered stove, so we could at least cook something, but then…...the fridge….after several days with no power a LOT of stuff went bad in there, you name it, it went bad. The meat, the milk, the leftovers, everything had to go save for a few like sealed cheese and such but doesn't stop the fact that over $100+ dollars worth of food was lost. I had to wear a protective mask just so I wouldn't breathe or smell the unholy smell of spoiled products. Almost threw up a few times, but as of today as I write this thing are slowly returning to normal with power and internet still not available in my hometown. Most residents rely on generators just to have energy, my mom has power when her neighbor connects her house with his power plant. I was able to charge my stuff mostly my 3DS, Ipod and most importantly my laptop so I could be able to write this chapter for you guys. I was planing to release this chapter a week after the last one but life and Maria had other plans. I was able to post this mostly because in the capital, San Juan there is signal and power and I was able to visit for the day. Forgive me for making this note as long as it is but just to update you guys on what's going on with me. But without further ado, here's a brand new chapter just for you. Enjoy!)**

The Shopping District is in shambles as both Isabela and Chad go at each other fist for fist, kick for kick. Stores, stands, and shops were demolished by these two brawling and they are not letting up.

"El Directo!"

"Hya!"

"Ya!"

"Yeah!"

El Directo!"

"Wow! Look at them go!" Serafall said with glee as she watches and commentates.

"Yes, this could go either way," Kisuke said as both continue to watch the fight same as both teams in their respective bases.

Both Chad and Isabela keep their melee assault against each other while smashing and breaking everything around them. Chad throws a low punch to Isabela's stomach, Isabela delivers an uppercut directly at Chad's chin. Chad throws a Directo-powered punch at Isabela but the half-masked woman blocks the punch with both of her arms but the attack pushes her back several feet.

Chad firs another Directo at Isabela but she quickly dodges to the side and goes right next to Chad and hits him with a powerful right hook hitting him right to his jaw. Then Isabela throws a left jab against the right side of Chad's ribs and quickly follows up with a right kick hitting the left side of Chad's ribs with the large teen enduring the blows as much as he could. But he's no training dummy and counters by throwing a Directo-powered fist hitting Isabela right on the right side of her face with her half-mask taking most of the blow but she feels the impact of the punch landing making her back away from him.

At this point Isabela can feel the fatigue as she breaths heavily, she looks at Chad and the large teen is still standing but breathing normally.

"Damn you….ha...you can't be human...ha...no normal person can endure that much!." Isabela said angrily frustrated while breathing heavily.

"Yeah...I get that a lot." Chad said keeping both of his fists up and both arms fully transformed.

"Heh….but even someone like you can't last forever," Isabela said with a grin as she charges forward and throws a barrage of kicks and punches towards Chad. Instead of dodging them Chad takes all of the blows, punches, kicks and all.

"Wow, Chad is really taking a beating! But why!?" Serafall asked wondering why the large teen is taking the assault.

"He's probably waiting for an opening," Kisuke said calmly while watching the fight almost as if he's studying it as it goes.

-Team Rias Base-

"My, Chad is really taking the blows," Akeno said watching the fight and can't help but be amazed by Chad.

"That's Chad for you, he can take all kinds of abuse and still keeps standing," Ichigo said as he watches with the rest.

"Honestly Chad's endurance is something to be admired," Kiba said while being amazed like Akeno even though he knew of Chad's endurance since their week's training, he never thought that Chad would be this tough.

"Hmm, if Chad was ever in a peerage I'd say he be the strongest Rook by far," Rias said with her thumb and index finger under her chin as she watches the fight while also she looks at Chad as if she examines his high endurance.

-Shopping District-

Once Chad sees an opening he shoots another Directo at Isabela only for the rook to dodge the attack and counters with a right hook but Chad quickly blocks her punch with his Brazo Derecha de Gigante he then pushes her back and fires another Directo hitting Isabela at the center and sends her flying only by several feet before she hits the ground.

But Chad wasn't done as he fires another Directo at the rook only for her to barely dodge the blast by rolling to the side. She quickly gets back on her feet and dashes directly towards Chad. Like before both throw their respective punches at each other only this time Chad's punch is boosted with a Directo to which Isabela is launched against a wall of a tall building.

Being pushed and crashed into the wall of one of the buildings Isabela now feels the pressure. She was losing and that is not acceptable, not for her or for her master. She needs to keep their winning streak going. She knows that this battle is for the complete destruction of Rias' team.

"Can you keep going?" Isabela snaps back to reality and looks up and sees Chad standing there, asking if she can continue.

"Don't insult me, Human!" Isabela shouted as she gets back to her feet.

"I REFUSE to lose to you!" Isabela shouts again in rage as her power begins to rise and flames begin to appear around her body. "I won't fail Master Riser!" Isabela declared slamming both her fists together as flames burst from the impact.

"And I won't fail my friends." The large teen calmly said. Chad's fingertips begin to charge in the forms of five disks of crackling spiritual energy as he forms a fist.

"Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Isabela shouts with the flames bursting from her back like wings she charges towards Chad with her right fist forward ready to destroy the tall teen with everything she has left.

Chad simply embraced himself for the attack as his Brazo Derecha de Gigante transforms into its Defensive Shield Form extending from his hand to some distance beyond his forearm. The Shield covers his wrist up to his shoulder as Chad takes a defensive stance readying for what's coming his way.

"Phoenix Flight!" Isabela shouted and once her attack hits Chad a large explosion occurs as smoke covers the whole district.

"Wow! What an attack!" Serafall exclaims practically jumping from her seat.

"But is it over for Chad?" Kisuke said keeping it professional.

Once the smoke clears one could see Isabela standing and breathing heavily with the flames around her dispersing and going out. Chad, on the other hand, is on the ground with his tanktop destroyed and his right arm back to normal and heavily burnt as well as the rest of his upper body.

"Heh….guess...I win." Isabela said with an arrogant smirk as she turns around and begins to walk away expecting the announcer to declare her the victor. But before she could take another step.

"Not…...yet."

Isabela went wide-eyed for a moment and quickly turn around hoping she was just hearing things but there he is. Chad is back up but barely as his blood slowly drips from his right arm to the assault. Once more while his Brazo Derecha de Gigante is gone for the moment, his Brazo Izquierda del Diablo is still active and fully charged with spiritual power.

"No...no….NO! You can't still be standing after that attack! You can't! It's impossible!" Isabela completely beside herself unable to believe that a lowly human can take so much as he did.

Chad slowly walks towards Isabela while she herself walks backward eventually bumping into one of the building's walls having put her all in that last attack and now she's completely powerless against Chad.

When Chad made a quick dash towards Isabela he forms his left fist as it crackles with spiritual energy. Isabela in a desperate move throws a punch at Chad but her fist would never land.

"La Muerte!" Chad shouts as he throws his punch directly into Isabela's bare stomach and upon contact, a huge skull shape is gouged into the surface of the wall behind Isabela with the rook's eyes going white as she coughs up blood and falls to the floor defeated.

 **FIGHT OVER! YASUTORA SADO "CHAD" OF HOUSE OF GREMORY WINS!**

-Team Gremory Base-

"Oh Alright, Chad!" Tatsuki cheered while jumping up and down.

"Yeah, right on!" Renji and Rukia celebrate while Uryu smiles and Yoruichi smirks finally having a win on their side for a change.

"That was quite the battle," Akeno said while being impressed with the tall teen.

"Now we're tied one for one," Kiba said as Orihime and Asia cheered for Chad.

"But we still have a long way to go," Rias said while happy with Chad's victory they are still not out of the woods yet.

 **-Team Phenex Base-**

Isabela appears from the teleportation circle still unconscious and with blood and saliva coming down from her mouth. Ravel quickly checks on her.

"Yup she's out," Ravel said as she looks over Isabela's unconscious body.

"Hmph, matters not. That was just a fluke nothing more." Riser said with a minor annoyed tone.

"This is merely a small setback," Ravel said to her brother.

 **-Studio Room-**

"Alright everybody, since we have our first tie between the two teams. We will be taking a short break!" Serafall said

"That's right Ms. Serafall, so stay tuned and this rating battle is brought to you by The Urahara Shop, Anything you need to combat the paranormal from spiritual charms to holy we have it all at reasonable prices!" Urahara chimed promoting his store.

"Hey, Mr. Urahara! No self-promotions!" Serafall said with a huff puffing her cheeks in annoyance.

"Well considering that Fake Karakura is being used for this battle I figured it be fair," Kisuke said with a smile while holding his fan.

"Well...I guess it's only fair." Serafall said feeling defeated since Fake Karakura was made by Kisuke with some help from the Soul Society.

 **-Team Gremory Base-**

In the teleportation circle, Chad returns to the team while still burnt and beaten up he still pulls a thumbs up to everyone.

"Good work Chad, I greatly appreciate your victory. Thank you" Rias said with a smile as both Orihime and Asia quickly do their healing work on Chad.

"You're welcome," Chad said simply as he sits on one of the classroom chairs as he lets Orihime and Asia heal him back to health.

"I guess I should go next," Renji said feeling ready to go.

"I wanna go next," Koneko said taking a step ahead of Renji.

"No way, I wanna go next!" Tatsuki said feeling very confident while not wanting to wait again.

"Come on everyone, we should strategize before sending out someone randomly," Rias said clapping her hands together getting everyone's attention.

Meanwhile, on the far side of the room, Issei lies on the floor having been healed up by both Asia and Orihime. Issei slowly comes around as he sits up. He touches his head with his right hand and quickly in realization he remembers what happened before he blacked out. He lost.

He looks up and sees everyone listening to Rias as she writes on the board on what would their battle plan be. Seeing a chance to sneak out wanting some space Issei quietly gets up and goes to the entrance of the room and exits.

Ichigo while listening to Rias noticed Issei walking out of the room. Ichigo quietly got up and follows the younger teen.

"Hey, Ichigo, where you going?" Rias asked noticing Ichigo leaving.

"Sorry, gotta use the bathroom, I'll be back," Ichigo answered as he leaves the room before Rias could respond.

"Should I get him?" Akeno asked with her usual sweet smile.

"No, I think he should go," Rias said as she also notices that Issei is not in the room either and quickly putting two and two together. Asia also noticed Issei was gone and begins to worry.

 _"Issei….."_

 **-Male Student's Bathroom-**

Issei punches the wall almost hitting the mirror in front of him as he looks down on the sink.

"Damn it! How…...how could I've lost!?" Issei shouts in both rage and sadness as small tears come down his cheeks. "After so much training, so much practicing and for what!?" Issei asked as his tears continue to fall.

 **"You got distrac-**

"SHUT UP! I didn't ask for your stupid opinion!" Issei shouts at the dragon inside of his boosted gear interrupting it.

 **"Like I was going to say, you lost focus and got distracted, you have no one to blame but yourself, Issei."** said the dragon inside of Issei's boosted gear.

"And like I said, I didn't ask for your opinion, so shut up already!" Issei yelled letting his anger get the better of him.

 **"Hmph...fine do what you want, I don't care. I'll let you have your little temper tantrum in peace."** The dragon said as the jewel of his boosted gear stopped glowing.

"FINE! Who needs you!?" Issei yells again at his boosted gear as it goes back to being his normal arm again.

"If it wasn't for last night, If it wasn't for that-" In his mind, the image of Rias and Ichigo kissing appears in his thoughts and without thinking Issei quickly lashes out and punches the mirror with his boosted gear.

"If it wasn't for Ichigo!" Issei said with anger and jealousy in his voice as he sits on the floor crossing his arms and hiding his face and his legs close to his chest.

"You got something you want to say?"

Issei quickly looks up and sees Ichigo standing before him. The tall teen looking down at Issei, the younger teen didn't think that the substitute soul reaper would notice him leaving the room much less follow him. But looking up to him and remembering that lousy memory Issei with a scowl looks away.

"Piss off," Issei said venomously to the older teen while looking to the side.

"What's that!?" Ichigo said getting mad with Issei's response.

"You heard me! Everything was fine until you showed up! Hell, I bet we be doing a better job winning this without you!" Issei said getting up on his feet while looking at Ichigo with fierce eyes now being face to face with the orange-haired teen even if he is a bit taller.

Feeling angered Ichigo grabs Issei by his collar and pulls the young teen close to his face. "Oh yeah, you think so!? Last I checked it was Rias that came to me!"

"Yeah! By fat stupid chance! The only reason she wants you is because of some stupid BS fairy tale stories that Urahara freak told her!" Issei said as he pushes himself away from Ichigo with the older teen letting him go.

"I bet you never saved Karakura from Shozen or whatever his name is and that it was all made up bullcrap!" Issei said continuing with his rant.

"First off It's Aizen, and second you're wrong Issei, I risked everything to save Karakura, more importantly, my family and my friends!" Ichigo argued as both teens continue to argue and could turn physical.

"So you saved the day, big whoop! Next, you're going to save the universe right!?" Issei shouts at Ichigo letting his frustration and his jealousy get the better of him.

"What's with you anyway!? All I ever did was help Rias! My friends and I even helped you guys train the whole week just for this battle and for Rias' freedom!" Ichigo yelled quickly grabbing Issei's shirt collar and being very close to punching the younger teen in the face.

"So what! Don't think that I don't know! I saw what happened last night! I saw both you and Rias kissed!" Issei said as he slaps Ichigo's hand away for the second time.

"What," Ichigo said shocked of what Issei said.

"Yeah, I saw the whole thing! I was taking a walk around the villa when I saw you and Rias talking. I saw how she was all over you….and I heard how she...was glad to have met you….and how happy she….was…..and then she chose you!" Issei closes his eyes as tears come down his face and in his anger throws a fist at Ichigo wanting to punch him right in the face only for the older teen quietly catching Issei's fist with his hand and stopping it in its tracks.

"You're wrong….Issei," Ichigo said as his anger quells as he begins to understand.

"What?" Issei asked still filled with anger and jealousy.

"Rias and I never really kissed," Ichigo revealed to Issei as the younger teen remained wide-eyed of what Ichigo just said.

"But I saw her and she was," Issei said feeling confused about what happened last night.

"Let me explain."

 **-Flashback: Last Night-**

As Rias was about to kiss Ichigo the tall teen stops her from doing so by taking her into his arms and hugging her closely to his chest.

"What's wrong?" Rias asked gently backing away while still close to Ichigo in his arms.

"Nothing is wrong Rias, It's just that we only know each other for only a number of days including the week we spent training. Don't you think this is rushing it?" Ichigo asked as he puts his hands on Rias' shoulders.

Rias gently looks down for a moment before looking up at Ichigo again. "I'm sorry, it wasn't my intention to rush things, I guess I just got carried away. But Ichigo, all I ever want is for someone to view me as just Rias. In fact, I want someone to love me for who I am and not just because of my family name." Rias said as she looks into Ichigo's eyes. "It's something I wish more than anything, to be free to love and to be loved by whichever I want to be with."

"But this whole arranged marriage is keeping you from doing that, and it's the whole reason you wanted my help in the first place," Ichigo said looking at Rias with sympathetic eyes while noticing the beauty of her red hair.

"Yes, you could say this is just me being selfish," Rias said as she looks down again.

"No way."

Rias looks up to Ichigo as the look on his face is one of determination.

"Rias, you have every right to pursue your dreams and I'll make sure that you get that chance," Ichigo said with a confident smile which made Rias blush.

"Heh….oh Ichigo….it's no wonder I'm falling for you…." Rias said as she rests her head against his chest.

Now Ichigo begins to blush never having a girl rest against his chest before. But he keeps his composure and gently wraps his arms around her waist.

"Yeah….but can we just take it slow and see where it goes," Ichigo asked feeling a little awkward.

"As you wish," Rias said with a dreamy smile still resting against his chest.

"Don't forget that I'm not the only one that wants to help you win," Ichigo said referring to Issei and the rest.

"I know," Rias replied

"I think it's getting late," Ichigo said as he sees his watch and notices that it was getting late.

"Just a few more minutes," Rias said with a gentle smile and with her eyes closed.

 **-Flashback End-**

"And that's what happened," Ichigo said finished explaining to Issei what happened.

"But still…..she chose you over me…..but who am I kidding? The odds of her falling for a chump like me were slim from the beginning." Issei said in despair slowly facing the hard truth of the matter.

"Yet you're the same 'chump' that she went out of her way to save your life and have you reborn as a devil and makes sure that you be as strong as you could be even if you are a pawn," Ichigo said as he attempts to try to cheer Issei up and give him some confidence.

"Well….yeah that's true," Issei said as he remembered how Rias saved his life and how in the last week she asked Kisuke to help him with his training.

"It's like Rias said, you have potential Issei. So you had a bad fight that sort of thing happens." Ichigo said as he tries to get Issei over his despair.

"Well, it's not exactly something that should happen when Rias' freedom is on the line," Issei said while feeling a tad better he's still feels bumped out of his loss.

"Maybe but it's not over yet, right?" Ichigo asked

"Yeah, right," Issei answered seeing Ichigo's point.

"Now that I think about it, what about Asia?" Ichigo asked

"What about her? We're just friends." Issei replied looking at Ichigo like the teen had an extra head.

"She does think highly of you." Ichigo points out to Issei.

"Yeah, but I don't think I'm right for her. She's so innocent and pure." Issei said can't help but have a warm feeling whenever he talks about the former nun of the church.

"You never know, but I'm not exactly an expert in these things. So are you done wallowing in despair or what?" Ichigo asked as he offers his hand to Issei.

Issei looks at Ichigo's offered hand for a solid minute. While now feeling somewhat confident and the image that cost him the first fight doesn't bother him as much. He can't help but still feel jealous of Ichigo relationship with Rias, even if it not one hundred percent official yet. But for now, there are more pressing matters at hand like winning the rating battle, at least for Rias' sake.

"Yeah," Issei said taking Ichigo's hand and getting up to his feet.

"Good, come on. We can't keep the rest waiting." Ichigo said as both he and Issei leave the restroom Asia was outside in the hall.

"Oh! Issei, Ichigo!" Asia exclaimed acting timidly

"Asia? Why are you here?"

"I….ah wanted to see that you're alright….and...ah like Ichigo I also need to use the bathroom!" Asia said as the girl without thinking rushes into the male bathroom.

"Wait Asia that's the male bathroom!" Issei said as he tried to stop Asia but it was too late as the young blonde goes in.

"Does it really matter?" Ichigo asked considering that they are not currently in the real world.

"Alright, everybody! Hope you enjoyed the break because it's time for the next round!" Serafall said while acting as her magical girl self.

"From the left of Team Gremory, we have Renji Abarai," Kisuke announced

"Versus the chainsaw twins Ilel and Nel!" Serafall follows up with the announcement

 **-Location: Karakura High School Gymnasium-**

"This feels off," Renji said as he walks towards the middle of the gymnasium.

"Hey, mister!"

"Wanna play with us?"

Renji quickly turns around and narrowly dodges two swipes of the chainsaw-wielding twins.

"Aww, he dodged."

"I guess we'll do this the hard way." Both twins giggle darkly as both of their chainsaws begin to rev-up as fire appears in the blades.

"Hmph….just my luck, just so you know I won't go easy on either of you just because your little kids!" Renji said as he draws out his Zanpakuto.

"Now! Roar Zabimaru!"

 **To be continued!**

 **(A/N: So with that, we end with Renji going head to head with the chainsaw twins sorry that the chapter is rather short but the next chapter will be battle heavy.**

 **But with all that said I do have some more news in my current situation. Right now my hometown as I write this still has no power including no internet. It's been more than 4 weeks since Hurricane Maria came and went and Puerto Rico is still struggling to get back on its feet. Right now I'm at San Juan the capital and so far getting hold of good wi-fi is a real pain. But I won't give up. If I manage to upload this chapter then good that's the important thing. I don't know when would things go back to normal but know that I'm doing ok, enduring but ok.**

 **Also, I'm not getting a lot fewer reviews than I used to get, come on guys I'd like to hear from you all. :) Even if it's just a guest review I'll gladly read it and respond to it. ^^ I really like to know what you guys think of my work so far. You can even drop a PM and I'll get back to you when I have the chance considering my current situation.**

 **But to those that did, I say thank you,**

 **First, we have Mr. Guest: Glad to have a Puertorican brother/sister enjoying my work and I hope that he/she is doing ok.**

 **Charles: Glad that you caught it, it was something that came to me while I was writing the chapter.**

 **Daisuke: Gracias y perdona que creias que yo deje de escribir el cuento.**

 **Bladetri: Glad that you like it, Bladetri.**

 **Well with all that out of the way I'm just happy to be able to update the story when I could but don't know when I'm getting another chance but in the meantime, I'm going to keep writing the next chapter. Till then my lovely readers, hope to hear from you soon this is Alpha signing out. Later!)**

 **(The Devil and The Reaper is written and edited by Alpha Espada. Please support the official release of both series used in this crossover.)**


	12. Round 3: Chainsaws, Swords n BattleWaltz

**(A/N: Enjoy not one but two chapters! But by the end, I'll give you guys the usual updates and review responses and there's a lot to talk about and it's important. So for the time being sit back, get the popcorn, favorite drink and enjoy.)**

Blink and You Will Miss It! Fight!

"Come on, mister, play with us." "Yeah, we just want to slash your head off." The twins said as they clash with Renji as he parries their chainsaw attacks with his Zabimaru.

"I like to keep my head where it is thanks, now Roar, Zabimaru!" Renji shouts as the segments of his zanpakuto come down on the two chainsaw twins, both Ile and Nel dodge the attack and quickly rush over to Renji with their revving chainsaws in hand. But the lieutenant soul reaper quickly pulls back the segments of his whip-like zanpakuto and have them move towards the twins yet again.

"Wah!" Ile said as both twins had little time to react and barely dodged Zabimaru's blade segments with Renji quickly pulling back the zanpakuto together.

"Had enough?" Renji said with a grin while not a big fan of fighting little kids he knew that these two twins are anything but normal the red-haired soul reaper keeps his guard up nonetheless.

"Shut up!" "Yeah! We are not done with you yet, stupid pineapple head!" Ile and Nel said in a nasty tone while starting to get frustrated with the soul reaper as they both charge towards him raising their chainsaws over their heads.

"Pineapple head!? Hmph no respect, someone should teach you brats a lesson." Renji said being insulted by the twins he quickly blocks their chainsaw attacks using his Zabimaru but he quickly dashes away from the twin's attack since he knows that Zabimaru can take so much especially with the burning chainsaws.

"Wel, his hairstyle does make him look like a pineapple," Serafall said as she takes a better look at Renji's hairstyle.

"At least it makes his look unique," Kisuke said with his fan covering his mouth.

Back in the gymnasium, an idea came to one of the sisters that being Ilel, she quickly goes to Nel and whispers into her ear. The other sister twin listens to what she said and then a wide evil grin is plastered on her face loving what she's hearing.

"I'm not liking that look of theirs," Renji said keeping his guard up still with Zabimaru.

"What's the matter, mister!?" Aren't you going to teach us a lesson!?" The twins said in a taunting matter with a dark grin on their faces as they both go directly towards Renji.

"I'm just getting to that! Roar! Zabimaru!" Renji shouts as he swings his zanpakuto while it extends into segments stretching longer than before towards the twins.

As Zabimaru comes down on them the twins quickly split away from each other as the zanpakuto slams on the wooden floor creating a puff of smoke and debris. Nel jumps towards Renji and goes directly towards him while Ile goes around to his side. Nel made sure to keep Renji's attention on her as the young girl continuously swipes and slashes at the soul reaper with her chainsaw making Renji block or evade her attacks using his zanpakuto.

Then in the corner of his eye, he sees Ile charging towards him and was very close to taking out his head with her chainsaw. Renji quickly used his shunpo to dodge the attack in nick of time.

"Aww...he dodged again!" "You're no fun!." The sisters complained getting annoyed with Renji being able to dodge and evade their attacks with ease.

"Hmph, sorry to disappoint but I'm not here to be your playmate," Renji said as he swings his Zabimaru to the side as the zanpakuto extends itself moving directly to the twins. Both girls quickly jump upward making Renji miss but the soul reaper moves the handle of his zanpakuto to bring back the extended blade and returning back to its normal length.

Renji then goes on to the offensive and dash towards one of the twins this time being Nel by swinging down Zabimaru on her. Nel quickly blocks Zabimaru with her chainsaw but she could feel the pressure that Renji is forcing on her. Ile quickly goes to her sister's aid and swings her chainsaw at Renji only for the soul reaper move out of the way forcing the sister to stop to avoid slashing her own to ribbons.

Then Renji creating some distance an idea came to him as he moves away from the twins while they regroup. Renji then raises Zabimaru up over his head and begins to swing the sword around and around while it begins to extend making the swings wider and wider.

"I wonder what's Renji's plan?" Serafall asked wondering what the crimson red-haired soul reaper is up to.

"I think this battle won't last long," Kisuke said

The twins would back away as Zabimaru gets longer and the swings continue to get wider until a certain point and then suddenly Renji swings around randomly as Zabimaru's segments begin to ricochet all over the gymnasium causing a good amount of damage to the place. Both Ile and Nel desperately dodge and block Zabimaru's segments as the zanpakuto continues to shoot around in different directions. But as they keep dodging and evading the twins finally realize that they are surrounded by Zabimaru's segments.

"Gotcha!" Renji exclaimed as he yanks back Zabimaru and before the twins could react they got snared in the whip-like zanpakuto's segments wrapped up from head to feet forcing them to let go of their chainsaws.

"Hey!" "Let us go, you stupid pineapple head!" The twins shouted as they struggle to get out of the wrapped up segments of Zabimaru.

"I have a name you know, it's Renji Abarai! Remember it!" Renji said as he pulls back Zabimaru with the twins still tied up. The lieutenant then raises his zanpakuto over his head, turns around and swings Zabimaru downward to the ground with the twins screaming landing head first against the hardwood floor knocking them both out in one swing.

"Ow….." "Stu-stupid..pine...apple...blah." The twin said before going unconscious.

 **FIGHT OVER! Ile and Nel from House of Phenex RETIRED!, Renji Abarai from House of Gremory WINS!**

 **-Studio Room-**

"Well, wasn't that a smashing of a fight," Serafall said trying to make a pun only to hear crickets making her pout.

"A few minutes early than I predicted but it was a fine fight overall, but it's alright Ms. Serafall everyone will have their moment," Kisuke said with a jolly smile as he pats the leviathan on the back in sympathy while he secretly keeps promoting his shop using his fan by opening and closing it, every time he opens it a new offer would appear and quickly replaced with the address and direction of his store. As Kisuke does this he winks at the camera and in turn at the audience.

Meanwhile, Sona and Tsubaki could only look on in disbelief as sweatdrops appear on the side of their heads with only one word echoing in their minds.

 _Shameless.  
_ _ **  
**_ **-Team Gremory Base-**

Back in the base, everybody cheered save for Rias who simply smiles being happy with the result and Koneko with the white-haired girl giving a rare smile.

"Well, that's one way to beat an opponent," Yuuto said with a smile while he can't but chuckle at Renji's way of getting things done.

"Hmph...didn't think he would use that maneuver again with a slight difference of course," Uryu said chuckling a little remembering how Renji use trick once before back in Hueco Mundo with the difference being that it didn't go out with a bang.

"Hey guys, can you hear me!" Renji called as he remains behind in the gymnasium while the twins are teleported back to their base.

Using her magic Rias makes a communication link with Renji. "We hear you Renji, what's the matter?"

"I'm going on ahead towards the enemy lines, I still have plenty of energy for another fight!" Renji said as he exits the gymnasium and heading out to the town.

"Are you sure about that, Renji?" Rukia asked while his battle with the twins was short, she like the rest knew that they were just pawns.

"Those two were only pawns, we have yet to face Riser's bishops, knights, his last rook and most importantly his Queen," Akeno said knowing that while they have a winning streak going she knew that they can't get too cocky.

Rias remains silent for the moment since so far neither side has remained in Fake Karakura after a battle. Maybe she can take advantage of this situation especially since Renji is not exhausted for the moment.

"Very well Renji, but keep in mind that while we might have our winning streak we can't underestimate them not for a minute. Just be careful." Rias said giving Renji the green light to go on ahead.

"Don't worry I'll keep my guard up," Renji said as he walks through Fake Karakura Town going straight towards Team Phenex Base.

 **-Team Phenex Base-**

While the twins come back to the base via teleportation circle Riser remains watching the monitor and in turn, watching Renji walking towards their base.

"Hmph….these soul reapers are rather annoying, Ravel tell me that you found a weakness for them?" Riser asked looking over towards his sister.

"I've been doing my research on them and so far I couldn't find a straight answer aside that each of them has their own unique traits." Ravel as she goes through her research on soul reapers.

"It's clear that we may have underestimated Rias' new friends, but now it's time for the kid gloves come off. Yubelluna go and destroy that soul reaper!" Riser ordered as he stands from his seat.

"Yes, my lord," Yubelluna said bowing to her King as she was about to head out and eliminate Renji.

"Hold on! We still have yet to know what the rest of them could do, we already know of Rias' original pieces' powers and abilities, and with three of them possessing sacred gears. At least we already eliminated one of them. But we can't simply can't send our best at random without knowing what we're really up against. We need to know before we make our big play." Ravel said giving a good argument.

Riser stops and thinks for a moment of what Ravel said placing his thumb and index finger under his chin while Yubelluna remains in her position waiting for his order. "Hmm...very well sister if you insist, then I won't argue." Riser said agreeing with Ravel's argument.

"My plan would be to have the pawns and if needed both knights and bishop to be our scouts so to speak and do battle with the Karakura group," Ravel said with the rest of Riser's peerage looking at her with a shocked expression but they remained silent not wanting to argue with their master's sister.

Meanwhile, Riser contemplates on Ravel's plan and while it might sound risky and could cost them the battle but if they play their cards right they could win this all in one fell swoop. "Hmmmm….very well Ravel, let us go with your plan." Riser said with an arrogant smile knowing that Ravel would never lead them wrong.

 **-Location: Karakura Main Street-**

"My I'm surprised that Riser hasn't sent out anyone to stop Renji yet," Serafall said

"They're probably strategizing and by the looks of it, they are taking their sweet time. If they don't want him to go any further they better get someone out now." Kisuke said having stop using his fan for the moment.

 **-Team Gremory's Base-**

"They sure love keeping us in suspense," Ichigo said feeling nervous while wondering what's taking them to send out one of their own.

"Something tells me that we don't have to wait that long," Rias said resting her shoulders on the table while her fingers interlocked with each other looking on intently.

 **-Location: Karakura Main Street-**

Renji continues to move forward while remaining vigilant to his surroundings while having Zabimaru in hand as he could see the mayor's office. He would stop every now and again to look around and sense any presence of their foes.

"I'm surprised they haven't sent anyone yet," Renji said quietly as he takes another quick look at his surroundings.

" _My guess is that Riser is taking his time selecting their next piece, a good chance he might send out his queen,"_ Rias said keeping her communication with Renji by telepathy magic.

"Yeah, so you want me to keep going?" Renji asked as he stops for a moment.

 _"For now stay put, we can't have you go too deep behind enemy lines by yourself,"_ Rias said giving the order.

"Alright if you say so," Renji said as he rests Zabimaru on his shoulder.

Suddenly from around the corner, Renji was ambushed by three of Riser's peerage. They are the two maids, one with shoulder-length brown hair, dressed in a sleeveless French maid uniform that exposes her cleavage with a white lace design on the edges, as well as a maid headpiece, half-apron, and forearm length fingerless gloves.

The other girl has shoulder length light brown hair and dark brown eyes, dressed in a buttoned, sleeveless, French maid uniform with a white lace design, along with a standard maid headpiece, cuffs, and a white half-apron to go with the set. She also wears light grey tights. They are Burent and Marion and they are not alone.

With them is one of Riser's knights Siris, a tall young woman with long black hair with a dark blue tint and brown eyes. Her hair features five thin ponytails going around her head, which are held up by a golden hair accessory on top of her head. She sports a white top with black accents, red shorts, and armored, knee-high boots with matching gauntlets. The top features a diamond shape in the chest area, giving a view of her cleavage and carrying with her is her giant Zweihänder sword as she swings it down on Renji.

"Surprise!" The trio said in unison.

"Wow and out of nowhere ambush Riser's pawns and knight," Serafall said with a surprised look on her face as she goes on the play by play.

"It was only a matter of time," Kisuke said as he keeps his calm and watches the new battle unfold.

 **HERE COMES THE NEW CHALLENGERS!**

"Crap!" Renji said barely dodging the ambush using his shupo.

"Hmph...you are quick but your team's winning streak ends here soul reaper!" said Siris pointing her giant zweihänder at Renji with the maids right behind her giving their support. The knight quickly clashes with Renji as her giant zweihänder strikes against Zabimaru.

"Hmph...he doesn't look that tough," Burent said with an arrogant smirk as her hands are covered with flame magic as she begins to create fireballs.

"It's probably dumb luck that he beaten the twins," Marion said as her hands begin to be covered with ice magic while creating a spear of Ice.

"Yeah, keep telling yourselves that crap!" Renji said as he pushes Siris back but quickly backs away as both Burent and Marion were about to sandwich him with their respective ice and fire magic enhanced attacks.

"Roar! Zabimaru!" Renji shouts as he swings his zanpakuto towards the three girls only for them to move out of the way of the blade's path but Renji was quick to redirect Zabimaru using his wrist as the blade goes towards one of the maids only for it to be blocked by Siris' large blade.

Then suddenly the maids once again go on the offensive as they unleash a barrage of ice spears and fireballs at Renji with the soul reaper lieutenant having to avoid their attacks using shupo once again while he pulls away from Siris. The knight gives chase after Renji with both her hands on her zweihänder. Renji backs away more and more from the trio and swings his Zabimaru towards them with both Marion and Burent dodging while Siris blocking using her own sword.

The two maids then team up and throws a barrage of ice and fire magic at Renji forcing him move away while pulling back together his Zabimaru only to be put under pressure by Siris as she swings her large two-handed sword against Renji forcing the soul reaper to parry the strike and swing Zabimaru at her only to be attacked from behind by Burent and Marion in a hit and run tactic.

"Damn!" Renji cursed as he uses his shupo to escape the girls creating some distance momentarily.

"Wow this doesn't look good for Renji, those girls are really keeping him on his toes," Serafall said as she watches the fight.

"Don't get too worried about Renji, Ms. Serafall. There's a reason why he's a lieutenant of squad six." Kisuke said having faith that Renji can pull another win for their team.

 **-Team Gremory Base-**

"Should we go out and help Renji? Three against one isn't exactly fair." Tatsuki said worrying for Renji while the soul reaper is a lieutenant it doesn't mean he could use the help to defeat the three.

Rias quickly give some thought of what Tatsuki said and while she believes in Renji's strength it wouldn't hurt to give him a hand and gain another victory for the team. "Very well, Tatsuki and Koneko go assist Renji."

"Yeah!" "Got it." Tatsuki and Koneko said as they go to the teleportation circle and are transported towards Renji's location.

 **-Stage Location: Karakura Square Plaza-**

While fighting three of Riser's peerage, Renji was pushed towards the square plaza of Karakura and away from the Phenex base. While the crimson-haired soul reaper was holding his own against the three fair enough Siri, Marion and Burent changed tactics and are now constantly on the soul reaper attacking him non-stop as if in a frenzy.

The knight Siri especially as she continues to repeatedly swing her giant zweihänder down, left and right on Renji not giving him a chance to use his Zabimaru to attack only to block and defend and every time he tries to counter-attack the maids would quickly go and swoop in and strikes against him with fireballs and ice spears, as well as throwing some magic-empowered jabs and kicks.

"Arrgh..so damn annoying!" Getting tired of this Renji once again use shupo and escape the barrage of the three girls. As the three chase after him, they were blindsided by the arrival of Koneko and Tatsuki.

"What the?" "Where did they come from?!" Burent and Marion said as Tatsuki and Koneko give the two maids a barrage of punches and kicks.

"Sorry, we're late," Tatsuki said as she and Koneko square off with Marion and Burent for some tag-team action.

"No worries, your timing couldn't be better, I was getting really annoyed with them," Renji said to them as he locks eyes with Siri as she readies her sword.

"So it's just you and me," Siri said wielding her giant Zweihänder with a firm grip pointing at Renji.

"Yeah, looks that way," Renji said as he points his Zabimaru against Siri and without another word the two finally clash one on one.

 **THIS IS GONNA GET WILD! FIGHT!**

Koneko was quick to grab Marion by the arm and judo throws her to the other side of the plaza.

"Wow, nice form," Tatsuki said as she counters Burent's strike she's fighting with a quick jab to the face.

"Thanks," Koneko replied as she goes towards Marion and gives her a collection combo of punches and kicks while the maid could barely block them with her Ice-magic as she constantly makes an ice shield only to be smashed and broken by Koneko's raw power.

"You bitch!" Burent said rubbing the sore spot where Tatsuki hit her.

"Well, what did you expect fighting a karate champion!" Tatsuki said as she dashes towards Burent and begins to pulverize the french maid with spiritual-powered fists while Burent could barely counter with her own fire fists. But the maid quickly creates a large fireball and throws it directly towards Tatsuki almost getting burnt as she moves to the side only to be met with Burent's high kick hitting Tatsuki right in the face.

"That's a cheap trick!" Tatsuki said as she throws a punch at Burent only for the maid to back away dodging her attack with a smirk and throws another fireball at Tatsuki's face making the karate expert to barely dodge out of the way with only a few burn marks on her cheek.

"Maybe it is, but it never fails to work on weaklings like you," Burent said as she keeps throwing fireballs at Tatsuki forcing Tatsuki to keep her distance from the fire maid.

"What you say?" Tatsuki grinding her teeth a little not liking the comment as she begins to charge up with spiritual energy as a small ball of energy begins to form in the palm of her hand.

"You heard me, you and that little white minx may have had the jump on us but we won't go down so easily," Burent said as she powers up while flame-like wings burst from her lower back and her fireballs got bigger as she takes flight above Tatsuki.

"Oh crap," Tatsuki said as she backs away from the burning maid while the ball of spiritual energy slowly gets bigger around the size of a baseball. "Come on! Come on! Get bigger already!"

As Tatsuki desperately tries to keep the spirit ball growing between her hands, Burent begins to toy with her opponent by throwing a shower of fireballs at Tatsuki's feet forcing the karate champion to constantly dodge and jumping away from the fiery strikes.

"Damn it! Quit it!" Tatsuki yells getting pissed off with the fire maid's antics.

"Aww but it's so much fun making you dance like a monkey, not to mention you're just a normal, worthless human with little spiritual energy, but since we have a rating battle to win. I'll reduce you to ash!" Burent said sadistically as she fires a large fireball towards Tatsuki who quickly ducks under the fireball and concentrating her spiritual power on her feet she jumps high going straight to Burent with the baseball-sized spiritual orb in hand.

"Wha-you can fly!?" Burent asked in shock

"Nope, just jump good!" Tatsuki said honing in at the flying maid.

 _"Please make this work!"_

"Try this!" Tatsuki shouts as she fires the spiritual ball directly at between Burent's chest and stomach area and nothing happened.

"Wha…," Tatsuki said completely shocked as she falls to the ground but managed to land safely by rolling to the ground but quickly got on her feet as she looks up.

"Pfft...Hahahahaahahahahaha! What the hell was that!? And here I thought that attack was goin-

 **KABOOM!**

Before Burent could finish her sentence a large explosion went off on her chest and stomach where the spirit ball once was and has sent the maid flying from the plaza and crashing against one of the buildings.

"Wow! What a bang!" Serafall said taken by surprise like the rest.

"Hmmm….I think I know what happened." Kisuke said who unlike the rest kept his composure and was too busy analyzing on what just happened.

"Please elaborate Mr. Urahara! Everyone needs to know, I know I do." Serafall said

"Why it's elementary my dear Serafall, simply put instead of increasing the size of her spiritual ball. Tatsuki was instead compressing it adding more and more spiritual energy inside the orb while holding it within her hands. And once she released it at the unfortunate maid the spiritual energy was finally was able to expand at a rapid rate causing the explosion that we just witnessed." Kisuke explained with Serafall, Sona, and Tsubaki giving a resounding.

"Oh."

All the while Tatsuki just stands there with her mouth ajar never expecting her spirit ball do as much damage as it did. Then from the corner of her eye, she turns and sees Koneko doing quick work with Marion as the white-haired girl slams her fist under the ice maids jaw and sends her flying upward and lets her fall into the plaza fountain landing in the water making a big splash.

 **FIGHT OVER! Pawns Burent and Marion of Phenex House Retires, Koneko Toujou, and Tatsuki of Gremory House Wins!**

"Damn….remind me not to piss you off," Tatsuki said with a chuckle as she walks over to Koneko as the petite girl just shrugs off.

"She may have a magic boost but she's still a pawn," Koneko said plainly as she walks towards Tatsuki meeting halfway as they both look over and see Renji battling Siris and he has the upper hand.

"He's got this handled," Koneko said plainly

"So basically sit and watch till he's done."

"Yup, looks like it."

Renji keeps swing and whipping Zabimaru at Siris as the swordswoman would deflect and parry with her zweihänder and fight back by slamming down her sword against the ground creating a shockwave hoping that would throw Renji off but the lieutenant was quick on his feet and pulls back Zabimaru and once again clashes with Siris.

"I'll give you this, you're very good," Siris said complimenting her opponent.

"Thanks you're not bad yourself," Renji said with a cool smirk as the two keep pushing each other as their blades would create sparks.

Then taking a chance Siris uses her strength and pushes Renji away from the sword lock and she quickly swings down her giant zweihänder ready to finish the soul reaper off but Renji was quick and before the large sword could hit him he takes his chance and takes a swing against Siris as well and at the same time for a split second both have struck each other on their respective shoulders.

While Siris' zweihänder has cut deep to even breaking Renji's shoulder bone by the sheer weight of the sword. Renji's Zabimaru, however, has slashed Siris's other arm to ribbons as blood begins to trickle down as both quickly backing away from each other.

"Ngh...damn it….I'm going to be feeling that for a while," Renji said as he tries to touch his shoulder only to coil as the pain of his wound and broken bone.

"Yes...I can barely move my arm anymore even so much as…..lifting it is a chore." Siris' said as she tries to lift her shredded arm only for it to be barely responding. "But even with that I won't go down so easily even with just one arm I will still fight you!"

Even using strength of her right arm to wield her giant zweihänder she could barely hold it straight as she begins to pat heavily.

Renji can't help but be impressed with this girl, refusing to admit defeat when clearing she can't continue in her condition. While his damaged arm is not doing any better at least Zabimaru is a lighter weapon to wield.

"So...one more go?" Renji asked as he raises Zabimaru high over his head.

"Of course! I'll even use my mutilated arm as a shield if I must! I will do it for Lord Riser!" Siris declared with pride.

"Hmm...so he means that much to ya, huh?" Renji asked as he couldn't help but sympathize with the bloodied knight.

"Yes, Lord Riser gave me, nay he gave all of us a purpose and that purpose is to serve him and the Phenex Family til the bitter end!" Without warning Siri's charges towards Renji using all of her strength to cut down the lieutenant soul reaper.

But Renji simply parries her attack and ultimately deflecting and disarming her in the process and with another swing of his Zabimaru, Renji cuts her down from her damaged shoulder towards her right thigh. With that Siris, the proud knight of Riser Phenex has fallen leaving Renji as the victor.

 **FIGHT OVER! Knight Siris from House of Phenex, Retired! Renji Abari from House of Gremory Wins!**

 **To Be Continued!**

 **Ending Theme: Broken Youth - NICO Touches the Walls**

 **(A/N: So yeah, I've been gone since October and I've been dead silent during November and halfway to December. Well as I've said before we were still without power and eventually, me and my grandmother decided to go to the states for three weeks visiting our relatives and for once having actual power after almost 3 months without it.**

 **We first we stayed with my older sister for a few days and she had internet in her apartment but the chapters were not done and I was too busy catching up with current events since I've been in the dark for a good while. Next, we crashed in my grandaunt's place for the remainder of the stay. I finally get to see relatives I haven't seen for 2 to 5 years heck some I haven't seen for 10+ years. We did Thanksgiving and other stuff, I spend some time with my cousins, nephews, uncles, aunts and the like. But sadly my Grandaunt's place didn't have internet...well it did just that it was the jetpack thing from Verizon, you know the enemy of Net Neutrality. Thinking it was unlimited data I used it almost the whole day and my aunt told to turn it off because apparently its data was drained.**

 **Well shit! So yeah no internet with the exception of my phone but since most of my work is on the laptop. I couldn't do much. Now I'm back home and finally have power...just no internet, that's just swell. We currently are switching to T-Mobile since Claro our local service currently is having technical issues. So I've been going to Burger Kings and Wendy's just to have a decent connection. Plus for the last few days, I've been burning gas and hitting hard on the writing and on the halfway I decided to make another chapter to make it up to you guys who had to wait as long as you did. Plus think of this as my Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Whatever The Next Holiday is Present from me to you all with love. As well as another present in a One-Shot that is currently in the works.**

 **Sidenote I managed to get Pokemon Ultra Moon** aaaaannnd **it's basically the original Pokemon Moon with the Rainbow Rocket being basically a DLC mission. Don't have much motivation to play it but I'll tackle it every now and again.**

 **Now to respond to the reviews:**

 **BukkakeNoJutsu: Why thank you. ^^**

 **Guest #1: As of now Ichigo Kurosaki will remain a human/soul reaper and currently have no plans to make him a devil.**

 **Guest #2: Glad that you like the fights so far, It's kind of one of the reasons why the chapters take as long as they do. But don't worry about the Ichigo vs. Riser fight and for now, I can't say anything you just have to wait and see. ;)**

 **S1TH1S: Thank you and now you don't have to wait since there's another new chapter.**

 **Jose19: First off I want to thank Jose19 for his feedback and his knowledge of the DxD world, I'm very thankful that we could talk over PMs about several details of DxD that sadly I didn't know about or just overlooked. Now with what he told, I'm going to have to rework some future arcs as well as the planned ending of The Devil and The Reaper. Yeah, I've been planning that far ahead. Hopefully, we can talk again soon.**

 **Charles: Hopefully what Renji did was epic enough for ya, I was going to have the misunderstanding done a few chapters later but I feel it's better in the last chapter than now. Thanks :)**

 **AJ: Yeah, Hurricane Maria was tough but we pulled through thanks, glad that you enjoyed the chapter. I've seen the trailer for season 4 and at least the animation got a major improvement. Akeno will be with someone but you can already guess. ;)**

 **Bladetri: Glad that you liked it ^^**

 **Daizuke: Gracias y si lo cheqeo cuando tenga el chance. :)**

 **SpudyPotato: Glad that you liked it overall, Yeah I kinda dropped the ball with Renji and probably again here since I'm so used to his Pre-time skip personality. ^^;**

 **Drakon45: Sooon my friend, sooon. Puerto Rico is recovering but we still have a lot to rebuild. :)**

 **xxx6sic6xxx: That's what I'm gunning for and like I said it's kinda why these chapters take as long as they do. Glad that you enjoyed the Issei and Ichigo scene. Don't worry PR is more or less back to normal still need to fix a lot of stuff. :)**

 **SilentXD7: Thanks but as I said in the past several times Ichigo does not have Quincie powers since Thousand Year Blood War arc won't happen. There are parings but don't worry it won't be any too common here. :)**

 **Well with that done I want to say thanks to everyone that showed love by reviewing and faving and following my story it means a lot to me as I said in the past. But now let's jump to the next chapter. Later ;) )**

 **(The Devil and The Reaper is written and edited by AlphaEspada. Please support the official release of both series used in this crossover.)**


	13. Round 4: Victories, Ambush and Fists!

**(A/N: Please enjoy the chapter and stick around for the end since I have some extra news to share with you guys and it's important.)**

After the announcement Burent, Marion and Siris' bodies were teleported away. Leaving Renji, Tatsuki, and Koneko in the battle damaged plaza.

Renji then falls on his rear while letting go of his zanpakuto as he could feel the pain of his broken shoulder and the fatigue kicking in.

"Renji!" Tatsuki shouts worried for her teammate with Koneko close behind her. As Tatsuki approaches Renji she could see the damage of his shoulder and arm and it was not good.

"You need to get back to the base, Orihime and Asia can heal you," Koneko said with a serious yet calm tone.  
"Yeah….I figured." Renji said and then in that moment, Rias contacts them.

 _"Renji, I'm getting you back to the base."_

"Yeah….I can't exactly fight with just one arm." Renji said as a teleportation circle appears in front of them. Tatsuki and Koneko give Renji a helping hand lifting him up on his feet.

But before they have the chance to approach the circle it was quickly destroyed by a blast of magic.

"What!?" Tatsuki said in shock as they turn around and see another trio of Riser's peerage.

Leading them is a well-endowed young Chinese woman with shoulder-length black hair and blue-green eyes. Her hair has two Chinese-style buns on both sides of her head, while the front features bangs that form a slight V-shape across her forehead.

Her outfit consists of a navy blue qipao with gold accents, a white sash around her stomach, and black, low-heeled shoes. The qipao is open at the chest area, giving view to her cleavage. She also wears black arm guards over her forearms.

The second on her right is a young woman with long pale blue hair and amber eyes. She has tanned skin and is seen wearing a belly dancer-like bikini made up of a metallic underwire brassier and a silk loincloth that exposes her sides. She also wears a silver colored tiara and neck rings with a ruby and blue gem respectively.

Other accessories that she wears include ruby orb earrings, a snake-themed bracelet on her upper arm and a transparent pink veil across both her arms. In the palm of her hand, she carries a magical crystal ball that is releasing a strong aura of magic and probably what destroyed their teleportation circle.

The third on the left is a young woman with light brown hair and green eyes. She wears of a full set of silver armor with black accents that appears to be a cross between a European knight's armor and a Japanese Samurai's armor and wears a headband that goes across her hair and forehead.

She is equipped with a broadsword and a dagger, both of which are held with brown belts slung across her hip. The broadsword is slung on her left hip, and features a red jewel on the pommel and has bandages across the handle for grip. The dagger, which is located behind her hip, features a gold hilt with bandages on the handle.

"And just where do you think you're going?" said the lead girl.

"Just great...just what we need," Renji said

"Hey! We're not ready to fight yet!" Tatsuki growled at the three girls.

"So what? There's nothing in the rules that we can't fight you guys right after the last battle! I am Xuelan, a rook!" Xuelan said as she introduces herself.

"I am Shuriya, a pawn. You will be crushed under our power!" Shuriya said with pride as her crystal ball begins to spark with magical elements.

Lastly, I am Karlamine a knight like Siris that you defeated." Karlamine said as she pulls out her sword and points it at an injured Renji.

 **-Studio Room-**

"Is this even allowed?" Serafall quickly goes into the rulebook re-reading the current rules only to find no such rules against their actions.

"While the concept of the rating battle is still pretty new, maybe the rules should have planned out better," Kisuke said as he takes a look at the rules himself while at the same time pulls out a notepad and begins to write something down.

"Seriously, whoever made these rules should be fired!" Serafall said with a pout while Sona and Tsubaki could only watch.

 **-Soul Society, Squad 10 Barracks-**

"Ahhh…..I'm pretty sure that's not allowed," Momo said with the rest watching the battle unfold

"Can someone get a referee, a judge or something I'm calling foul," Rangiku demanded while in reality, she can't do much about it.

"This isn't a ball game Rangiku," Ikkaku said as he takes another drink from the fridge in the room.

"Hmmm...at least this keeps things interesting, to say the least," Shunsui said watching the battle while taking another swig from his sake.

"Heh! At least I'm having fun so far watching this!" Kenpachi said with a grin as Yachiru rests on his shoulder watching the battle as well as munching on some extra snacks that she brought for the show.

 **-Team Gremory's Base-**

"Damn it I can't believe them! This sucks, is there any way we can go in and switch out with them or something!?" Issei said with an outrage.

Rias could only bite her thumb while trying to figure out on how to bring Renji back. She could create another teleportation circle but she fears that their current opponents would just destroy it again.

"Rias make another teleportation portal!"

Rias looks up and sees Ichigo looking at her with determined eyes. "Ichigo, even if I create another teleportation portal they would surely destroy it before Renji could have a chance," Rias said

"Then we're not going to give them that chance, I have an idea. If they want to bend the rules, then so will we!"

 **-Location: Damaged Karakura Plaza-**

"I shall avenge Siris' loss to you soul reaper, I challenge you even with your injuries," Karlamine said as she charges towards the injured Renji.

"My eyes are set on the karate girl, Shuriya that leaves you with that pipsqueak," Xuelan said as she walks towards Tatsuki

"Oh very well but I'll make sure she will suffer," said Shuriya as she goes up in the air using her magic and flies away from the plaza and towards another location of Fake Karakura Town with Koneko following her in hot pursuit.

But before the fights would begin another teleportation circle appears behind Renji and Tatsuki. From above Shuriya sees the teleportation circle and quickly turns back and fires a ball of explosive magic.

"Oh no, you won't!" Shuriya shouts as she fires her attack.

"Getsuga Tensho!" Out of the teleportation circle, a wave of spiritual energy comes out and wipes out the explosive magic sphere and almost hits Shuriya.

Out of the circle is Ichigo Kurosaki and Kiba Yuuto as the former quickly grabs Renji and places his good arm over his shoulder while taking his Zabimaru with them. "Come on, I'm taking you back!"

"Wha-Ichigo!?" Tatsuki said in shock as Yuuto quickly takes Renji's place.

"Don't worry I came to fight in Renji's place," Kiba said as he uses his Sword Birth to create two short swords as he takes a battle stance next to Tatsuki.

"Don't let him get away!" Xuelan ordered as she, Karlamine and Shuriya quickly give chase to Ichigo and Renji only to be intercepted by Tatsuki, Kiba, and Koneko respectively.

"Sorry but you're going to have to fight us!" Tatsuki declared with a tightened fist as Ichigo brings back Renji into the teleportation portal before it dissipates into nothing.

"Damn it, we should have finished him while we had the chance! But no matter it's high time to put you all in your place!"

"Ok now, this is crazy now everyone is bending the rules!" Serafall said in a fit.

"Like I said, they should have really planned it out more," Kisuke said as he keeps writing down something in his notepad while having the rule book next to him.

 **COME TOGETHER AND SMASH! FIGHT!**

"How dare you take away my opponent! You will feel the sting of my blade!" Karlamine said as she and Yuuto quickly clash with each other as Kiba uses his sword birth exchanges his short swords and summons a long sword to fight Karlamine's broadsword.

"Don't worry I'll be sure to not disappoint you," Yuuto said politely as both knights would strike at each other with great speed and agility as they take their fight towards the streets of Karakura.

Koneko then follows Shuriya into the treeline towards the heavily wooded area as the dancer pawn uses her magic to create a fog around them. "I may be a pawn but let's see how she fares against my magic.

That leaves both Tatsuki and Xuelan as they begin to throw and trade blows with each other with Xuelan's fast kicks hitting their marks, Tatsuki counters with her expert level Karate even going as far as parrying Xuelan's strikes and throws her combos of punches and kicks.

They both backed off taking a breather as both are covered in bruises but they are not even close to being done.

"Heh...you call that Karate?" Xuelan said with a smirk as she wipes away the sweat from her forehead.

"What you say!?" Tatsuki shouts as she grinds her teeth as a tic begins to appear on her forehead.

"You may hit good but, I got to be honest and tell you something sweetie, your karate looks like something out a cheap martial arts movie….and I don't mean the good kind." Xuelan taunted crossing her arms over her chest as she looks at Tatsuki by the side with a smug smile on her face.

 **-Team Gremory Base-**

"Welp, she went and press Tatsuki's big red button." Ichigo plainly said while watching the fight on the large monitor.

"What do you mean?" Issei asked wondering what Ichigo said.

"Oh, it's just that Tatsuki has a trigger whenever someone makes fun of her karate. She's very prideful of it." Orihime said with a sweat drop on her forehead as she heals Renji back to full health she remembers the last time someone made of Tatsuki's karate.

"How bad is it exactly?" Rias asked curiously being the first time she hears about this.

"Well….the last time it was a rival student of another karate school and he called her karate sloppy and amateurish. Next thing he was put in the hospital for six months." Ichigo said with a deadpan tone as he watches on.

"Oh, my" Rias said while both Issei and Asia gulped at the same time in fear mentally noting to never press Tatsuki's big red button. Uryu simply sighs knowing whats coming while Chad just watches on with Ichigo.

"So...basically she just dug her own grave?" Akeno asked mostly out of curiosity instead of fear.

"Yup," Ichigo answered

 **-Location: Damaged Karakura Plaza-**

Tatsuki could not feel anymore insulted in all her life. She takes pride in her karate it was the martial art that took her to championships and pulverized a good number of bullies and perverts that tried their luck with her. Now here comes this bitch who just waltz-like no big deal and mocks the very martial art that she loves and compares it to a cheap movie knockoff!?

 _"No…This won't stand!...no..this...just...got...PERSONAL!"_ Tatsuki thought as her anger reaches new heights.

"Now my Kung-fu, on the other hand, is more refined and mastered, I can kick with precise accuracy and gra-

 **SWACK!**

Before Xuelan could finish Tatsuki delivers a powerful strong kick hitting directly at the rook's mouth and sends her flying a few feet and landing on the tile floor of the plaza.

But Tatsuki wasn't done yet, oh no she will make this girl pay for what she said. Tatsuki stomps over to Xuelan and grabs her by the hair and delivers another powerful kick at her face and like before Xuelan was sent flying several feet. But by this point, Xuelan comes back up on her feet only to come face to face with an enraged Tatsuki.

 _"Crap! What even is she!?"_ That's all that Xuelan could think as she keeps parrying and deflecting Tatsuki's onslaught of strong punches and kicks only to have several lands on her body and Tatsuki even attempting to judo throw the kung-fu expert across the plaza only for Xuelan to quickly land on her feet and begins to counterattack by unleashing a barrage of kicks of her own only this time her feet are now covered in flames to strengthen her strikes.

Seeing this Tatsuki simply dodges the kicks as they sail past her head and body as she begins to charge up and soon enough her hands and feet are covered in flame-like spiritual energy.

"Ok! Now I'm ready!" With little time to let Xuelan react Tatsuki begins by kicking three times one on her calf, the second on her waist and finally on her face in under a second, next Tatsuki punches Xuelan right on her face repeatedly forcing the kung fu expert to back away and deflect the last two punches by Tatsuki.

"Am I supposed to be impressed!" Xuelan asked her breathing being ragged with an annoyed voice as she goes towards Tatsuki and throws another burning kick to her only for Tatsuki to catch the kick with her spiritual energy covered hand.

"Are you gonna keep talking shit all day!? Or are we going to throw down!? Tatsuki yelled as she throws Xuelan's kick away and stomps her foot down on the tile floor breaking it.

"Then bring it!" Xuelan shouts. Both warriors of martial arts let out their battle cry as they charge into each other and it became a close combat brawl of the ages. It's like watching two masters unleashing every punch and kick they have and that each blow is an explosion of spiritual and burning passion.

"Kyaaa! Hyaa! Cha! Oh! Ha!

Shea! Shea! Sheeeea!

"CHACHACHACHACHACHACHACHA!"

"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!"

"Hya!"

"Chyaa!"

"Shoryuken!"

"Rising Falcon Kick!

As they keep dishing out their techniques Xuelan's fighting aura has become like that of a tiger while Tatsuki's is of a dragon as they keep going at it blow for blow and they are not slowing down. Their fight can be felt from afar reaching both Kiba and Koneko respectfully.

"My….such veracity," Kiba said while striking and parrying Karlamine's sword swings while in the forest Koneko momentarily stops giving chase to Shuriya and looks back to where Tatsuki is. "She's really a lot stronger than she looks."

Meanwhile, Shuriya remains hidden and targeting Koneko as the dancer from the start of their fight was using the magical fog she created as a cover and has constantly been attacking Koneko with hit and run tactics but the petite devil could still smell her and was able to dodge her magical blasts with ease. "Damn it! I can't land a hit on her!" Shuriya bites down on her cloth in frustration as she hides behind a tree up in the canopy.

Then she looks over and to her surprise, she lost sight of Koneko.

"Looking for someone?" Koneko said as she appears behind her and before Shuriya had the chance to even turn around Koneko puts her two hands on the pawn's shoulders and pulls her down from the tree canopy and as they fall the Gremory Rook delivers a sharp right kick to Shuriya's side and quickly delivers a sharp elbow to her abdomen and finally Koneko spins around and gives Shuriya a powerful leg drop on her stomach and sends the Phenex Pawn directly towards the ground below creating a small crater. In the center of the crater, Shuriya lies there with her eyes white blood coming from her mouth. She's knocked out.

Koneko simply lands on her feet as she sees Shuriya's body teleported away.

 **FIGHT OVER! Pawn Shuriya from House of Phenex Retired, Rook Koneko Toujou from House of Gremory Wins!**

"Wow what a finishing move by Koneko!" Serafall said glee loving the finisher of the fight.

"Yes, it's quite the technique I wonder what she calls it?" Kisuke asked wondering

"I bet it's something super cool like Lion's Barrage or maybe Tiger's barrage!" Serafall said as several names of the technique run through her mind.

Meanwhile, in the streets of Fake Karakura Town both Kiba and Karlamine where clashing at each other while speeding around the area eventually reaching towards.

 **-Location: Abandoned Matsukura Hospital-**

The two knights eventually reached the abandoned hospital as they go for another clash at the front of the building. The sound of swords clashing can be heard as both knights of their respective houses keep going at it Karlamine even went so far to pull her dagger on Kiba only for the blonde to deflected it with a small sword he created using his Sword Birth.

"Argh! Damn you!"

"It was a nice try."

Kiba then exchanged his long sword for two sharp edge long katanas while Karlamine stays steadfast with both her hands on her beloved broadsword then flames begin to emit through her blade.

"Hm...I see you've been holding back."

"I wanted to finish you without have to use my full power but now I know that's no longer an option," Karlamine said as she swings her flaming broadsword at Kiba releasing a wave of fire towards the blonde.

Kaiba was quick to react and ducks under the flaming slash wave and quickly almost as if he was using flash step himself Kiba quickly swings at Karlamine only for the swordswoman to block it with her dagger and tried to counter Kiba with the Gremory knight parries her counter strike and once again both warriors back away creating some distance in between them.

"You know despite that we're enemies, I can't help but enjoy our little duel. I'm actually having some fun." Kiba said with a genuine smile as he uses his Sword Birth again and summons a long two-handed sword.

"Yes, I agree. I was told that I was destined to fight one with special swords!" Karlamine said with conviction in her eyes.

"You mean a Demon Sword user like me?" Kiba asked

'No, actually my destiny is to duel a Holy Sword user I'm afraid." Karlamine said correcting Kiba.

But when Kiba heard the words Holy Sword Kiba's mood has completely changed like Karlamine flipped the switch by accident. From his usual calm and polite self to a more serious business side that only comes out whenever the holy swords would be brought up.

For a moment Kiba closes his eyes and keeps his composure reminding himself of the current situation he's in at the moment. But he really wanted to know more as he looks towards Karlamine.

"Please, if you know more of the user of the holy swords. You must tell me, I need to know as much as I can!" Kiba demanded even if it was small information he's willing to take it even by force if needed.

Karlamine stares at Kiba and she can see that he's troubled by the holy swords but then again what devil doesn't. But apparently, from her point of view, it looked like it was something personal with the blonde knight. Not one to lie or keep secrets since she does follows the honor of a knight Karlamine speaks.

"Sorry but I only know of my destiny to duel with a holy sword user, but I do not know who it is yet," Karlamine said honestly but then an old memory returned to her. "But if it helps, there is one that I've encountered a few years back and she was part of the church and is wielding a holy sword but I do not recall her name. But I remember her orange hair tied in twin tails." Karlamine said as she remembers it even if the memory is a little hazy.

"Is that all you know?" Kiba asked wanting to be sure.

"Yes, I swear on my honor as a knight of Phenex!" Karlamine said replying with conviction.

Even if it's a small description it was enough for Kiba at the very least he has a lead, granted it's a risky one that involves a follower of the church. But for now, he'll worry about that later.

"Very well, pardon for interrupting our fight with that. I just wanted to know." Kiba said more or less returning to his normal self as he readies his sword to do battle again with Karlamine.

"It's alright as long as we can continue our duel, I have no objections," Karlamine said with her sword becoming enflamed once again and both knights charge at each other and they clash once again.

 **-Location: Damaged Karakura Plaza-**

Meanwhile, Tatsuki and Xuelan keep going at each other fists for kicks as both fighters refuse to go down. Tatsuki tried to create another spirit ball only for Xuelan to interrupt her attempts time and time again and punish Tatsuki with a barrage of kicks.

Leaving Tatsuki to rely on her karate skills while she parries and blocks the kicks with several managing to make their mark. If she wants to win this for the team she has to make every move count.

"Give it up! You can't win!" Xuelan said delivering another barrage of high speed burning kicks forcing Tatsuki to evade only to be hit hard by several of Xuelan's kicks and in the process almost destroying her old gi as it's filled with burnt marks and holes thankfully Tatsuki was wearing a tight white sports bra underneath the old gi. And with one last powerful kick, Xuelan sends Tatsuki flying and she lands right into the fountain.

 **Splash!**

"Oh, I didn't know it was bath time? But then again you apparently needed one, your odor is that of a monkey." Xuelan said continues to taunt and torment Tatsuki as she spits out the water and blood in her mouth.

"Keep talking, just keep talking you're not going to last long," Tatsuki said as she slowly steps out of the fountain as spiritual energy starts to form around her as she discards her damaged gi.

"Really? Says the girl I've been pulverizing to a bloody mess up til now. Forget it you're losing and so will the rest of your team." Xuelan said going straight towards Tatsuki and throws another burning kick to her head.

But before the kick could land Tatsuki parries it as a strong spiritual energy continues to flow from her.

"Wha-what the?" Xuelan said feeling the spiritual power coming down on her but not enough make her buckle down.

"I won't fall, I won't lose, especially to you!" Tatsuki said taking a stance with one foot forward while the other crouching in the back slightly as the spiritual energy begins to calm around her.

"Hmm...that's nice, but it's time to end it, it's over for you!" Xuelan said as the flames in her hands and feet ignite and have become hotter than before not wanting to waste another minute with her Xuelan dashed towards Tatsuki ready to finish her off for good.

"Yeah...it is over….for you at least," Tatsuki said as she takes a deep breath and waits for the kung-fu expert to come to her. Tatsuki extends her right arm and then she closes her eyes.

Xuelan fires the first kick, Tatsuki parries, Xuelan throws another kick, Tatsuki parries, Xuelan throws another sharp kick, again Tatsuki parries. Finally, in her frustration, Xuelan unleashes a powerful barrage of swift and powerful kicks and with every strike, Tatsuki parries each and every single one of them.

Then it was Tatsuki's turn as her eyes open. She quickly deflects Xuelan's high kick and delivers a sharp kick of her own hitting Xuelan against her hip and then with everything she had in her Tatsuki unleashes her ultimate attack!

Tatsuki unleashes a barrage of kicks of her own as she spins like a hurricane and dealing damage like a hurricane as she continues her endless assault. Xuelan couldn't react as each kick was fast and powerful as the next. She tried to block and parry the kicks but ultimately her attempts failed and for her trouble, she got a broken hand for it and with one last powerful kick to the mouth Xuelan was beaten as she falls back on the tile floor skidding back a little and just lies there. _"Damn...you."_

 **FIGHT! Rook Xuelan from House of Phenex Retired, Tatsuki Arisawa from House of Phenex WINS!**

"Woooh!" That was all Tatsuki said as she falls on the floor breathing heavily and then before long Koneko finds her.

"Hey."

"H-hey, you finished?"

"For a while, Kiba is still fighting," Koneko said and speaking of Kiba.

 **FIGHT! Knight Karlamine from House of Phenex Retired, Kiba Yuuto from House of Gremory WINS!**

"Heh...just forget about it, we might as well won this whole thing...hehehe," Tatsuki said as she struggles to get back up with Koneko giving her a hand to get back to her feet.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Koneko said plainly.

"I see you two have finished with your respective battles," Kiba said while he may have won the duel with Karlamine he still got some injuries courtesy of the bandaged knight.

"Yeah, I think we should head back, I could use some healing," Tatsuki said to her devil friends.

"Yes, I agree. We may lose some ground but we can recover it easily." Kiba said with a smile as the teleportation circle appears before them.

"Alright then, let's head back," Tatsuki said as they walk towards it.

 **HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!**

"Wha-" Kiba said startled as the three stopped and hearing the announcement. But unbeknown to them a magic circle slowly falls towards the three and without warning, a large explosion hits all three of them and knocking them all out of the battle.

 **Knight Kiba Yuuto, Rook Koneko Toujou and Tatsuki Arisawa from House of Gremory Retired!**

 **To Be Continued!**

 **Ending Theme: Broken Youth by NICO Touches the Walls**

 **(A/N: Yes I know I'm bending the rules of the rating battle here but for the sake of progression I have to move the story forward. Plus I'm a bit tired of this arc but it won't mean I'm just going to rush it. Just a chapter or two before the big showdown between Ichigo and Riser, also while I was writing the two chapters I also started to write for the next few arc namely the Excalibur/Kokabiel Arc and another that I'm going to keep secret for the time being. I also started to work on crossover ideas but for now, they're on the drawing board and probably won't be seen for a while.**

 **And yeah I changed Roundabout with Broken Youth, I just find it fitting it considering the current cast. Let me know what you guys think, like it? hate it? or just don't care? I'll probably do a poll next time when I switched themes. I mostly chose the song because it kinda fits the connection between Issei and Ichigo. As both do have a brother connection even if it's a little early to say but it will be touched upon every now and again.**

 **But now it's time for the big announcement. -Deep breath- I'm going back to school, namely college to finish my degree in Computer Science. I came to this decision mostly because of Hurricane Maria. The opportunity for work has dwindled severely and if I want to have a chance for a future I need to have a degree just to start somewhere. I know that you don't necessarily need a degree in some places but for me, it's so I can get a job and actually getting paid for it. I know of but I'm pretty sure that it won't work as much as a Youtuber with a Account. But ultimately I do have plans to become a writer since a lot of you love my writing even with the flaws.**

 **So with that said I won't start classes until January, they have yet to give me the date when they start but I'll probably know soon enough. But when I do, DnR will slow down but it won't be gone completely. It really all depends on how will my classes be, So yeah, we'll just have to wait and see.**

 **As always if you like the story hit that Follow and Favorite and drop a review it really helps to know what you guys think of my story so far. Time for me to sign out, Later! ^^)**

 **(The Devil and The Reaper** is **written and edited by AlphaEspada. Please support the official releases of both series used in this crossover.)**


	14. UPDATE

(Apologies if you all were expecting another chapter when you saw the notification. It's been well over 9 months since the last chapter and...I really haven't written a word for the next chapter even when I have it all planned out and ready to write down. Aside from my time in college which I have to put it on hold again for a number of reasons, playing and finishing Super Mario Oddesy and Legend of Zelda Breath of The Wild and including other personal events that still going on as I write this. I've been debating on if I should redo Devil and the Reaper? Honestly, I feel that I've botched the Rating Game and the story as a whole and should have sticked to canon as much as possible while in some way adding the Bleach crew in the mix. Not to mention I feel that I was ignorant with the full lore of DxD since I only used season 1 and a few episodes of season 2 of the anime, some part of the available manga and wiki for reference.

I've been thinking of taking the story to the very beginning of both Bleach and Highschool DxD with the Occult Research Club gang living in Karakura Town from the start and work the story from there with both canon stories intertwining with each other. You could say the idea was inspired because of the story A Devil's Diamond. Not that I would copy off of it, I'd never do that. In a way, I want to do something different with it. But what keeps me from doing it is how people are still adding DnR in their Favs and Follows even to this day.

Not to mention I wanted to try another story with DxD in Zero which is a crossover between Code Geass and DxD which has really caught my attention and got me interested to expand on it and there are some who are very interested in the idea as I am.

So here we are and I ask, my readers old and new, would you like for me to continue with the story as it is? should I reboot it? or would you like me to try out DxD in Zero for a while?

Let me know either via review or by PM and if whichever of the three choices people lean on more I will continue on. Plus I might need a beta writer but that can be discussed later. til next we meet everyone later and thank you.)


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